Why the curviest mums have the cleverest babies
Here’s an idea, and for once it’s a good one. Matthew Hertenstein, who looks impossibly young to be a psychology professor, believes we are far more intuitive and perceptive than we ever realise.
His book — slim, dense, a little forbidding — tells us of The Little Clues That reveal Big Truths About Who We Are. read the book, is the unspoken promise, and ye shall know more.
It’s all about picking up the little non-verbal signals we give off, all the time, usually without realising it. But while we are broadcasting these signals, others are interpreting them, instinctively and also without realising it.
Hertenstein collects together a number of examples psychologists in white coats have been investigating over the years. some of these results will make you raise an eyebrow, or make some other non-verbal signal that indicates mild amazement.
Hertenstein starts with the story of a sergeant in the U.s. Marines serving in Iraq in 2004. His battalion had been assigned to lead a convoy to a town near the syrian border to deliver supplies to troops stationed there. On the way back he spotted an orange-and-white car parked on the side of the road. He saw the driver for no more than a split-second.
‘He looked as though he had pure adrenaline coursing through his veins and had an ‘Oh s***!’ look written on his face.’
The sergeant immediately told his superior that there was a bomb in that car. ‘Don’t worry about it,’ said the commander. A minute or so later, the bomb exploded.
An extreme example, maybe, but on the slightest imaginable evidence, the sergeant’s intuition led him to the correct conclusion.
Poker players call it ‘the tell’, the inadvertent signal that tells them their opponent has a really good hand or, in my case, a truly abysmal
one and a manic desire to give away all my money.
Dating and mating are all about ‘the tell’. We unconsciously look for symmetry in the faces of potential lovers, and it’s not just an aesthetic response: people with symmetrical features tend to be genetically stronger, healthier and longer-living.
Men may think they prefer women with long legs or big busts — but most of us are unconsciously looking for a waist-to-hip ratio of under 0.8. A bit depressing, that.
Again, it’s our genes talking. Child- bearing hips, according to the latest research, give birth to cleverer children. Beyoncé (pictured left) has a waist- to- hip ratio of 0.69. Elizabeth Taylor’s was 0.58.
Hertenstein is less sure about gaydar, the mystical process by which we identify someone’s sexual orientation. Is it genetic or a matter of experience, or a combination of the two?
It’s not clear, but there’s one amazing result here, that women are more accurate at determining a man’s sexual orientation the closer they are to ovulating. Who researches this stuff? We are good at predicting, from viewing short video clips, whether people are generous with their money, or whether they are mean. We can guess whether a man will be aggressive or not from the shape of his face, and we can do it in 39 milliseconds. Wide- faced men are more likely to start fights, although narrow- faced men are more likely to die violent deaths in those fights. We weedy men know there’s only one solution to this conundrum. Run away! In one study in Texas, students were photographed with neutral expressions and their arms at their sides. People who didn’t know them, looking at the photos, could accurately gauge their self- esteem, whether they were extroverts or introverts and, bizarrely, their strength of religious feeling. Well, it is Texas.
Looking at photographs of politicians from other countries, even children can accurately predict which of them will win the next election. It turns out that millions of us vote for the person who ‘looks’ most competent, whether they are or not. Dave or Ed? Or would nice Uncle Vince have a better chance?
One thing we’re not naturally good at, sadly, is spotting when people lie — although Hertenstein gives us a few useful tips. I’m not going to lie here: he is not the most elegant or entertaining writer in the world. Indeed, as a writer he makes an excellent psychologist. But after reading his book you might well look upon the world in a different way — an even more jaundiced way than usual, that is.
We, as a species, are undoubtedly brilliant in ways we can barely understand, but the fact that we are more likely to vote for politicians with deeper voices and stronger jaws also makes us idiotic. It explains a lot; possibly even too much.