Do women with lower waist-to-hip ratios have higher intelligence?
Lassek and Gaulin analyzed data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), which was conducted by the US National Center for Health Statistics from 1988 to 1994. They reported that women with lower waist-to-hip ratios (WHR) had higher intelligence and smarter children.(1, pdf) WHR decreases with increasing femininity and also lesser body fat as one goes from obese to normal. So have the authors shown a relationship in women between intelligence and femininity (assessed by distribution of body fat) or between intelligence and degree of body fat or between intelligence and both amount plus distribution of body fat? Let us see. Some background on obesity and intelligence is relevant.
