SWS poll: 4 of 5 Pinoys prefer ‘brains than body’
Between a smart conversation and a strong physical attraction, copywriter Louise Cruz, 22, knows what tops her checklist when eyeing a potential partner.
“Intellect is attractive to me,” she said. “The probability that I can make a real connection is higher if I know more about a person’s set of values and principles instead of just physical attributes.”
According to the latest survey of Social Weather Stations (SWS), most Filipinos think like Cruz.
An SWS survey conducted Dec. 13 to Dec. 16 last year showed that 81 percent of respon
dents were more attracted to a person’s intelligence than body.
The remaining 19 percent said “the reverse,” SWS said.
Higher among women
Attraction to a person’s intelligence was higher among women at 83 percent, compared with 78 percent among men.
Among women who chose brains over body, the highest proportion, at 89 percent, was among women with live-in partners, followed by single women at 82 percent and married women at 81 percent.
Among men who prefer brains over body, the proportion “hardly varies ... by civil status, ranging from 77 to 79 percent,” SWS said.
SWS also found majority of adults saying they would choose good health over love and money if they were to pick “only one of the following”—with 70 percent choosing health, 23 percent, love and 7 percent, money.
The choice of health over love and money was higher among women at 72 percent, compared with 67 percent among men.
Meanwhile, those who prefer love, were highest among married men at 30 percent and women with live-in partners at 23 percent.
“Those who prefer money are highest among single men (8 percent) and single women (14 percent),” the poll said.
More than half of Filipinos or 54 percent said they were “very happy” with their love life—up from 51 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018—while 32 percent of adults said “it
Love life
The percentage of those who “do not have a love life” barely changed at 14 percent, from 13 percent.
“Happiness with love life is highest among men and [among] those who are married,” SWS said. The poll also pointed out that “married men and married women ... have a happier love life compared to their single and ... live-in partner counterparts.”
Among men, the proportion of respondents who reported a
“very happy” love life was highest among those who are married at 72 percent, followed by those with live-in partners at 64 percent, and those who are single at 26 percent.
“Among women, those with very happy love life are also highest among those who are married at 58 percent, followed by those with live-in partner at 51 percent, and those who are single at 26 percent,” the poll said.
The highest proportion of respondents who said their love life could be happier was among men with live-in partners at 36 percent, and women with livein partners at 48 percent.
“Those who say they have no love life are highest among single men at 57 percent and single women at 50 percent,” SWS said.
The noncommissioned survey was conducted using faceto-face interviews with 1,200 adults (18 years old and above) nationwide: 300 each in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, with sampling error margins of ±3 percent for national percentages and ±6 percent each for the said areas.