As a comp sci master student who also go out on weekends sometime to clubs, I have to say that women are not turned on by the occupation of a programmer.
This could be related to the problems very intelligent people have getting laid. Their interests are less accessible and more focused, and so their conversations are more boring to people who don't share those interests. Whereas everybody but the stupidest people can easily follow along in a reality TV discussion.
Also, it seems that intelligent people place quite a high value on, well, intelligence. I doubt most people working on startups, research, ground-breaking products, etc want a mate who doesn't understand or care for any of it.
However, both men and women tend to be more androgynous as intelligence increases, which is a problem for both genders, but especially for men, when it comes to attracting mates.
You could possibly explain this in the article then with the idea that intelligent people are more likely to be either really introverted or extroverted and that the introverted ones tend not to do this sort of thing, leaving just the extroverted of the smart people to get laid?
Sort of similar to the risk-aversion idea here, except with introversion. I do have smart friends who do this, they just happen to also be reasonably extroverted
If you want a girl like you; make her smile.
Yes, and if you want to win a race, simply go faster.
If you want to get a home run, simply hit the ball harder.
If you want to be a better programmer, just write better code.
If you want to make your startup succeed, just get more users.
If you want to make your dog start behaving, just train it.
and on and on and on.
An older but much more thorough source on some of the same issues is
http://www.amazon.com/Intelligence-Genes-Success-Scientists-...
with some very good discussions of differential rates of reproduction by IQ score.
Maybe you mean counterintuitive? Here is one plausible argument:
"Reproductive success" depends first on making other people like you and second on taking very good care of your children. It's hard to see how deep analytical insight would make either task much easier, especially given that so much of sex and child-rearing runs on simple, emotional scripts.
On the other hand, tautology is possible if you're prepared to argue that intelligence causes a person to be significantly more popular, likable, and conscientious, it's hard to imagine positive mental traits that wouldn't be due to intelligence. In that case, all you're saying is that "success is caused by the agglomeration of factors that collectively cause success."
Thank you for the suggestion on word choice.
I hang around a lot with individual differences psychologists, so I'm used to hearing rather broad claims of what IQ ("psychometric intelligence") means. To some people, it is taken to mean general adaptive ability. But what would an organism adapt to if not overcoming challenges to reproducing, under selection pressure?
But, yes, if what IQ tests estimate is something narrower than David Wechsler's claimed general ability to adapt to the environment, it is understandable that some high-IQ people never even get to first base in the biological task of reproduction.
"Another idea is that smarter people are more risk averse, and delaying these activities is a byproduct of enhanced concerns about unwanted pregnancy and disease. While not avoiding sexual behaviors, per se, they are just less likely to seek it out or consent to it for fear of the potential consequences.
...
Another idea, consistent with popular media portrayals of geeks and nerds (males at least), is that intelligent people actually want to have sex, but are simply less likely or unable to obtain willing partners because they are disproportionately viewed as unattractive or undesirable as partners."
edit: this comment is not meant to support your claims, only to suggest your claims are redundant to HNers who read the article.
In my parents' day, "finding a husband/wife" wasn't something most people had to make an active effort in order to do. It happened fairly naturally. So smart people paired off at a similar rate to everyone else.
In the post-"Game" world, wherein breaking through womens' defenses and attracting them requires learning a bag of cheap sales tricks, the big losers are the people who don't learn them. These are the dumb, who are unable, and the smart nerds, who can't be bothered because they find childish social games uninteresting.
It's easy to look at the average and say that a fifteen year old shouldn't be having sex. The average fifteen year old one would encounter is not necessarily emotionally prepared for sex, but I wouldn't say that's indicative of their being a problem with sex. I'd say that has more to do with the pressures of society. The idea that sex is a bad thing that should be suppressed is the problem. We're surrounded by sexual images and ideas as kids and young adults, but we're also told that we should wait until we're married. Fortunately, I had a mother who was open with me about sex, who told me that sex was a beautiful, natural thing and while she would prefer I wait until I was married, she realized that was unrealistic. So, I came out of my teenage years without any unwanted pregnancies, STD's, or emotional baggage in regards to sex.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4200-cleverness-may-ca...
In fact, it seems like they just bred fruit flies that over emphasize their past observations. They didn't make "clever" fruit flies.
I consciously decided to "improve" myself. Here are things I did:
1. Improved my wardrobe. Believe me, it makes a difference. 2. Consciously taught myself to listen, and ask questions that will lead to more conversation. 3. Consciously taught myself to gauge the level of interest of the other person. Move on if the other person isn't interested - as they say, there is always more fish in the ocean. 4. Push the envelope a little bit ... the man has to push - you have to ask for the phone number! And it is a good way to gauge interest. 5. Don't forget that some level of IQ compatibility is critical. Just as "they" don't want the nerd in you, may be some of the "airhead" types aren't great to be around for you either.
Let me just say that I hit success after consciously doing it. It is like doing a start-up. Know your strengths and know how to compensate for your weaknesses - a superior IQ can help you figure out how to compensate :-)
If the wording of the original survey asks questions specifically related to kissing, holding hands with, and having sex with members of the opposite sex, this study could fail to consider the sexual activity of intelligent homosexual college students which could also provide some interesting results.
