Physiognomy: Difference between revisions

*There is evidence that there is some validity to the popular 'four-eyes nerd' stereotype that people who wear glasses are more likely to be highly intelligent. Specifically, myopia (short-sightedness) has been found to be positively linearly linked to intelligence:<br />Rosner & Belkin (1987) examined the medical data of 157,748 Israeli military conscripts aged 17-19 and their intelligence test scores. They found a linear association between intelligence and myopia (controlling for education), with the lowest-scoring cohort (IQ ≤ 80) having rates of myopia much lower than the general population (8% vs. 15.8%). Conversely, the highest-scoring cohort (IQ ≥ 128) had significantly higher incidences of myopia (27.3% vs. 15.8%). The authors also found a positive association between myopia and attained education level, with intelligence test performance being controlled for in this analysis.<ref>https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3675282/</ref><br />It is not entirely clear how this positive relationship between intelligence relates to the different lower-order factors that derive from general intelligence in the standard model of general intelligence (i.e., non-verbal vs. verbal intelligence). Some studies have found no association between myopia and non-verbal intelligence, indicating that the link between intelligence and myopia may be environmental in nature, i.e., myopic people read more or reading puts strain on the eyes that can induce myopia; however, they did not control for reading frequency or preference for near-work. Saw et al. (2004) found a large positive link between myopia and non-verbal intelligence in a large sample of Singapore Chinese children (aged 8-12, N = 1204), controlling for books read a week and preference for near work (multivariate OR for myopia among the highest quartile of intelligence: 2.4, 95% CI 1.7-3.4, as compared to the lowest quartile of intelligence, the reference group).<ref>https://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2163349</ref> <br />In order to determine the root cause(s) of the observed link between myopia and intelligence, Williams et al. (2017) conducted a study on a large number of twin pairs aged 14-18) who were administered a verbal and non-verbal intelligence test at age 16. The genotypic, lifestyle, and medical data of this cohort were pooled and subjected to extensive statistical analysis. The conclusion was that the phenotypic link between myopia and intelligence was largely a result of pleiotropic (several genes influencing the development of the same trait) genetic influences and that this indicates that brain and eye growth may be partially determined by the pleiotropic effects of several genes that may be co-inherited, as both traits are strongly polygenetic (the result of additive effects of several genes).<ref>https://www.nature.com/articles/srep45977#Sec5>/</ref><br />

*There is some correlation between facial beauty and intelligence, since ''‘facial symmetry is associated with increased cognitive performance […] (Kowner, 2001)’''.<ref>Jonason PK, Raulston T, Rotolo A. 2012. ''More Than Just a Pretty Face and a Hot Body: Multiple Cues in Mate-Choice.'' The Journal of Social Psychology. 152(2): 174–184. [[https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2011.586654 Abstract]]; the article mentioned: [https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/000712601162284 Kowner, R. 2001. Psychological perspective on human developmental stability and fluctuating asymmetry: Sources, applications and implications. ''British Journal of Psychology'', 92: 447–469].</ref>

===Mental health physiognomy===