Smarter Teens Have Less Sex

Slashdotter CmdrTaco posted this (it's not clear to me whether this person is also Tech.Luver@gmail.com, or is reposting this material) abstract titled "Smarter Teens Have Less Sex" (see quoted text, below).

There are, of course, people laughing. Despite the resources necessary to cultivate an intellectual (or, in cases, because of them) anti-intellectual humor is pervasive, and the stereotype of a nerd - pale, extremely proficient in a mixture of useful and very odd areas, socially inept, perhaps clumsy - is widespread. Those who laugh at others may be masking insecurities about their own attractiveness and adequacy. But whatever the case, one way to interpret this is to read it as "smarter" = 'less attractive'.

To be a critical thinker, one must consider the alternative perspectives.

Is it possible that intelligent teens are making choices based on risk assessment? I'm an old nerd myself, and my opinion may not be worth much to you, but I think this is a far more likely explanation.

Consider the risks associated with sexual behavior - not just the sexually transmitted diseases, not just the risk of pregnancy, but the emotional complexities, anxiety, delusions, euphoria, and addictive behaviors that are commonly part of sexually active lifestyles. Ask someone who knows all about this, and it's likely they'll tell you a lot of sad stories.

Think again about what "smarter teens" are, and consider that there are very, very few with tape on their glasses these days. Although I'd like to know more about the specific Intelligence Quotient assessment used in this study, I suspect this is accurate. And I read it as intelligent = cautious. I'd like to believe intelligence also connects to an increased control of one's own sexuality, but that's beyond this data set.

Tech.Luver writes "Gene Expression reports, "Tyler Cowen quotes from a new study testing the relationship between grades and delayed sexual activity. Last December I passed a paper along to Razib showing that high-school age adolescents with higher IQs and extremely low IQs were less likely to have had first intercourse than those with average to below average intelligence. (i.e. for males with IQs under 70, 63.3% were still virgins, for those with IQs between 70-90 only 50.2% were virgin, 58.6% were virgins with IQs between 90-110, and 70.3% with IQs over 110 were virgins) In fact, a more detailed study from 2000 is devoted strictly to this topic, and finds the same thing: Smart Teens Don't Have Sex (or Kiss Much Either).