'The ability to accurately assess the intelligence of other persons finds its place in everyday social interaction and should have important evolutionary consequences,' the team wrote in the journal PLoS One. Methodology/Principal Findings We used static facial photographs of 40 men and 40 women to test the relationship between measured IQ, perceived intelligence, and facial shape. Both men and women were able to accurately evaluate the intelligence of men by viewing facial photographs, they discovered. For women, however, the researchers found no statistically significant link between perceived intelligence and their actual IQ. We used geometric morphometrics to determine which facial traits are associated with the perception of intelligence, as well as with intelligence as measured by IQ testing. 'Faces that are perceived as highly intelligent are rather prolonged with a broader distance between the eyes, a larger nose, a slight upturn to the corners of the mouth, and a sharper, pointing, less rounded chin. 'By contrast, the perception of lower intelligence is associated with broader, more rounded faces with eyes closer to each other, a shorter nose, declining corners of the mouth, and a rounded and massive chin. 'By contrast, we found no correlation between morphological traits and real intelligence measured with IQ test, either in men or women. 'These results suggest that a perceiver can accurately gauge the real intelligence of men, but not women, by viewing their faces in photographs; however, this estimation is possibly not based on facial shape,' they claim. 'Our study revealed no relation between intelligence and either attractiveness or face shape. Some researchers have suggested that people tend to attribute higher intelligence to attractive persons [10], [11]. Men were more accurately assessed for intelligence than women, while women were more accurate at assessing the intelligence of both men and women [26], [28]. Methods The present study integrates data from two different studies in which two independent groups of students participated: the first group consisted of 80 biology students at the Faculty of Science who were tested for IQ and photographed; the second group involved 160 raters, students at the Faculty of Humanities who rated the photos of the biology students either for intelligence or for attractiveness (each student rated 80 randomized photos). Geometric morphometrics Photographs of 40 men and 40 women were analyzed by geometric morphometric methods (GMM) in order to detect the facial features that are associated with either or both the perception of intelligence and intelligence measured with the Intelligence Structure Test in both men and women. Discussion Our raters were able to estimate intelligence with an accuracy higher then chance from static facial photographs of men but not from photos of women. At the same time, we found no differences in the abilities of men and women to assess intelligence from static facial photos: the ratings of both sexes were highly correlated,” Karel Kleisner of Charles University in Prague and her colleagues wrote in their study. “This means that our raters accurately assessed intelligence from faces of men based on visual cues that simply are not explicable from shape variability in men’s faces,” the researchers wrote. It is important to recall that our subjects were prompted to assume a neutral expression while their photo was taken and only photos of subjects with a neutral expression were included in the study. The researchers proposed a number of explanations to be tested by future research. “Our data suggest that a clear mental image how a smart face should look does exist for both men and women within the community of human raters,” the researchers explained. “In both sexes, a narrower face with a thinner chin and a larger prolonged nose characterizes the predicted stereotype of high-intelligence, while a rather oval and broader face with a massive chin and a smallish nose characterizes the prediction of low-intelligence.” 
 
 But these facial characteristics were only associated with perceived intelligence. Naturally, the findings raised the question of why people could predict men’s intelligence based on their face, but not predict women’s intelligence based on their face. Moreover, perceived intelligence was also shown to be positively associated with perceived friendliness and sense of humour in both male and female faces but negatively related with perceived dominance in faces of women [43]. Correlation between IQ and perceived intelligence Two factors of general intelligence were significantly associated with perceived intelligence from men's faces: fluid intelligence and figural intelligence. Fluid intelligence is the capacity to logically solve problems independent of acquired knowledge [31]. Figurative intelligence describes the ability to handle objects such as images, patterns and shapes.” “One possible explanation is that cues of higher intelligence are sexually dimorphic and are thus apparent only in men’s faces, e.g. due to some genetic and developmental association to sex steroid hormonal agents during puberty,” Kleisner and her colleagues wrote. 'Another option is that women are pervasively judged according to their attractiveness,' they add. The strong halo effect of attractiveness may thus prevent an accurate assessment of the intelligence of women,” the researchers added. To conclude, humans were able to estimate actual intelligence from facial photographs of men but not women. The researchers also found that the participants rated men with a high IQ as more intelligent based solely on their facial photograph. “These faces of supposed high and low intelligence probably represent nothing more than a cultural stereotype because these morphological traits do not correlate with the real intelligence of the subjects,” the researchers said.
– It's easier to guess men's intelligence than women's just by looking at their faces—maybe because we're so distracted by female beauty, according to a new study. Czech researchers gave IQ tests to 80 male and female students, took photos of them, and asked 160 students to rate them in order of attractiveness and perceived intelligence, PsyPost reports. Generally, students deemed more attractive were also deemed smarter, especially among the women. Little surprise there, but somehow the 160 students were more able to spot men's actual IQ. Why is that? Maybe signs of higher intelligence are only visible in men's faces "due to some genetic and developmental association," the researchers write. "Another option is that women are pervasively judged according to their attractiveness," which prevents "an accurate assessment of their intelligence." What's more, our ability to quickly identify a person's IQ may have "evolutionary" consequences, the researchers say, the Daily Mail reports. Neat factoid: The study found that people hold a certain mental image of an intelligent person's face—narrow, with a long nose and thin chin—which didn't correlate to actual IQ.