30 mars 2023
Sexual attraction develops towards a desirable physique. It can also come from an attraction to the personality of the partner. And also his intelligence. For sapiosexuals, this is also the most important element.
The eyes, the hands, the buttocks or the legs… What do you look at first in a woman or a man? We have all already had to answer this banal question. Well know that for some, the answer is not anatomical. For sapiosexuals – this is how they are called – it is intelligence that takes precedence.
The Latin Root I know (to know, know, understand, agree) “used in sexual semantics appeared in the USA in the early 2010s and the rise of the Internet seems to have been a propellant for the use of this noun”, believes Thiery Favre, member of the French Society of Clinical Sexology (SFSC). It would correspond to the fact “to be sexually attracted to intelligent people”.
Is this a sexual orientation?
“It’s a controversial issue”says the researcher. “It would be preferable to qualify it as being a major element among the criteria of selectivity-predilection of a sexual orientation, which can be broken down into heterosexuality, homosexuality or bisexuality. » This major element being in this case in the field of intelligence but also of culture, eloquence and knowledge.
According to a study published in 2019 in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, considering the intelligence of your future partner is not so uncommon when looking for a long-term relationship. However, this criterion only comes into play after a “sufficient level of physical attraction”.
So maybe we are all, to varying degrees, sapiosexual. And that’s good, because if being cultured does not ensure a quality relationship, it can at least give hope for interesting exchanges.
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Source : text by Thiery Favre, member of the Board of Directors of the French Society of Clinical Sexology (SFSC), Master in Psychoanalysis – Is smart sexy? Examining the role of relative intelligence in mate preferences, Peter K. Jonason – Personality and Individual Differences Volume 139, 1 March 2019, Pages 53-59
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Written by : Dominique Salomon – Edited by: Vincent Roche