Do blondes have a higher IQ?

There are so many blonde jokes around that we don’t need to canvass them here but the question does arise as to why are so many of them one-liners? The answer must be so that brunettes can remember them. That’s one striking back for the blondes who are traditionally portrayed as the “dumb” hair colour but is such pigmentism warranted? That is precisely the question that a new study sought to answer.

The new study involved analysing data from 10,878 people surveyed in 1979. The subjects were aged 14-21 and all subjects completed the Armed Forces Qualification Test which is a test of word knowledge, comprehension, maths, arithmetic, and reasoning that is used by the Pentagon to assess the IQ of potential recruits.

The researchers admit that some women lied about their natural hair colour, they estimate around 3.5 per cent. However, they say this does not change their main findings.

Five years later the subjects completed a survey in which they were asked to disclose their natural hair colour. To exclude ethnicity as a confounding factor Hispanics and Black Americans were excluded from the analysis.

The results showed that blonde haired white women had a slightly higher IQ than darker haired women.

The blondes showed an average IQ score of 103.2 compared to 102.7 for women with brown hair, 101.2 for women with red hair, and 100.5 for black-haired women. Blonde women were also slightly more likely than dark-haired women to be in the high IQ category and less likely to be in the low IQ category. Among men brown-haired men scored an average 104.4 with blonde men just behind at 103.9.

The researchers admit that some women lied about their natural hair colour, they estimate around 3.5 per cent. However, they say this does not change their main findings.

These results are not statistically significant so it doesn’t really mean that blondes can claim to be smarter than their darker pigmented peers but it does mean that we can put the dumb blonde stereotype to bed.