Official: it's what's inside that counts
BRAINS HAVE BEATEN beauty in the race for a mate, declares author Geoffrey Miller in his new book The Mating Mind. Miller - of the Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution at UCL - offers the controversial theory that instead of wanting a beautiful face and a perfect body, people are more concerned with intelligence and artistic ability when it comes to choosing a partner. For Miller, evolution is not the survival of the fittest, but survival of the cultured.
The author's research centres on the sexual desires of peacocks. Their feather-spreading strutting hides a search for intelligent rather than attractive mates. Humans, he asserts, are essentially no different.
The argument is that the complex human mind has evolved not for the survival of the species, but to attract members of the opposite sex. Miller has described the search for a partner as "an arms race", in which 'cognitive abilities', such as intelligence, wit and a GSOH, are the key weapons.
Good news, it would seem, for the academically-orientated students of Oxford. If Miller's argument is to be believed, then writing dedicated love sonnets for the object of your affection puts you one step ahead in the mating game. The hypothesis suggests that both males and females benefit from the desire to find a fulfilling and witty partner.
However, different groups have refuted Miller's claims. Scientists in particular are sceptical of Miller's findings. Geneticist Steve Jones scoffed that the book's assertions are "untestable." He added "I can't take any of them seriously." Both Mensa and the Oxford University's Genetics Unit refused to comment on the doctor's findings.
So will the budding academics of Oxford, despite being recently voted the most unattractive students in Great Britain, be at the top of the league in love? Miller's work may help explain the bizarre findings of a recent poll that Tony Blair (formerly of St John's) is Britain's tenth sexiest man. The jury is still out as to whether Tony attracts through his sheer mental prowess or through his physique.
27th Apr 2000