Jay Zagorsky, The Ohio State University – Are Blondes Less Intelligent?
12/12/14 – Boston, Massachusetts
School of Management faculty headshots.
Photo by Dan Watkins for Boston University Photography.
Are blondes really less intelligent?
Jay Zagorsky, research scientist at The Ohio State University, discusses whether this stereotype is real or just a myth.
Since 1995 I have held the position of Research Scientist at The Ohio State University, where I collect data as part of the National Longitudinal Surveys on income, wealth, and life experiences of thousands of Americans. My personal finance research has been widely quoted in the media and has been highlighted in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Fox News, Good Morning America, Scientific American and numerous other news outlets.
Besides publishing numerous scholarly articles I wrote the book “Business Information: Finding and Using Data in the Digital Age” for McGraw-Hill/Irwin and “Business Macroeconomics: A Guide for Managers, Traders and Practical People.” More information on the macroeconomics book can be found at http://businessmacroeconomics.com/.
I also teach at Boston University‘s School of Management. From 1988 to the present my teaching has spanned a wide range of levels from senior executives taking intensive classes to high school students encountering economic theories for the first time. I have taught giant lectures of over 450 students, classes of fifty, and small seminars with fewer than ten people.
Are Blondes Less Intelligent?
There is a long standing belief that women with blonde hair are dumb. This belief is reinforced by t.v. sitcoms, movies and dumb blonde jokes.
My recently published research used a large national survey and found white women with blonde hair are not dumb. Instead, IQ tests reveal the average white woman with blonde hair is no less intelligent than women with other hair color. Results suggest there is even a chance they might be a little bit smarter.
Why does a serious academic investigate questions like “Are blonde’s dumb?”
Discrimination and prejudice are a reality in today’s world. My goal was to investigate prejudice using a non-threatening, even fun, topic, since prejudice often doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
The research was done using data from the National Longitudinal Surveys. These surveys randomly select groups of people, primarily teenagers, and then follow these individuals their entire lives.
The US government funds these surveys not to understand if blondes are dumb or smart. Instead, they are trying to understand serious matters like why some people do poorly in the labor market and others succeed.
Because the same individuals are interviewed over and over, it is useful for the interviewer to know the respondent’s physical characteristics. This ensures the right person is questioned. One survey asked “what is your natural hair color?”
The Department of Defense provided funding to the National Longitudinal Surveys to compare the intelligence of all US teenagers with those of military recruits.
Putting the hair color and IQ information together shows the dumb blonde stereotype is a myth.
If believing in something silly like blondes are dumb is not true, imagine how many other prejudices are also wrong?
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Stereotypes may seem minor, even when they have serious effects. In clinical medicine, a very strong belief exists that redheads cannot tolerate pain. As a medical educator, I should have paid attention to the belief, especially because I have red hair. But I didn’t. There is also a belief that pedestrians who are struck by cars are inebriated. In fact, about half of pedestrians struck by cars have some level of blood alcohol. Half.
Lessons have a way of cropping up when you least expect them. I presented at my medical school’s Emergency Department after having been run down by a SUV while crossing New York City’s Fifth Avenue, with a green light, on my way to play soccer in Central Park. My last alcohol beverage was a month prior. Hours passed by with no treatment, no screening, zero check-ins. I was puzzled initially, then I decided to tough it out to see just how badly my own ED could ignore a non-terminal patient. Eight hours after admission, at midnight, I decided to end my ‘case study’. I called the chief resident over, politely explained that I had been admitted at 4PM, and asked when my wrist fracture would be reduced. “When we get to you, we’ll decide if you have a fracture,” he smirked, enjoying laughter from his resident team. I smiled nicely and said, “Apparently, you do not know who I am.” They laughed again. “Oh . . . so who ARE you?” he said. “Your associate director of medical education. You thought I came to the ED because my wrist hurts? It’s a fracture. You need to reduce it STAT. And, my red hair? It’s from a bottle. And my blood alcohol level? It’s been zero for the past three weeks. Don’t EVER ignore another patient.”
Their chair and I had a lengthy discussion about improving their medical education the next day.