Nov 15 2007
According to American researchers curvaceous women may have the edge on their skinny sisters in more ways than one.
The researchers from the Universities of Pittsburgh and California say not only are women with curvy figures likely to be smarter than their thin counterparts, but they also produce more intelligent offspring.
The researchers studied 16,000 women and girls and found the more voluptuous a woman was the better she performed on cognitive tests, as did her children.
They say the bigger the difference between a woman's waist and hips the better and suggest this is down to the fatty acids found on the hips.
The fat in this area is likely to be the much acclaimed Omega-3 type, which could improve a woman's mental abilities as well as those of her child during pregnancy.
The researchers believe men are more responsive to the double attraction of both an intelligent partner and an intelligent child.
The study, conducted by William Lassek of the University of Pittsburgh and Steven Gaulin of the University of California at Santa Barbara, has revealed that a lower waist-to-hip ratio (larger hips) correlates to higher test scores for both a woman and her child.
They say it is difficult to divorce intelligence from other factors, such as social class, and waist to hip ratio features relatively low down the list of feature men look for in a prospective partner.
The research is published in Evolution and Human Behaviour.