How Does It Feel to Be One of the Beautiful People?

I'm sure that nearly everybody online has heard of the study that supposedly showed that attractive people are more intelligent. My first reaction was that somebody should tell the organizers of the “Ugliest Man on Campus” contest at MIT.

My second reaction was astonishment that the researchers used a decent sample size (17,419) instead of rushing into print upon surveying a dozen freshmen. This might be the start of a new trend in social-science research: real data.

My third reaction was to notice that the correlation was between childhood IQ and childhood looks. The results may be different for adults. On the other hand, the paper tried to allow for that by mentioning a positive correlation between childhood and adult IQ and between childhood and adult appearance. On the gripping hand, I don't think something based on three stages of correlations is that reliable.