Blondes may be 'bombshells' who have more fun, but they're also tarnished¹ with a reputation for being dumb.

 

金发女郎也许是享受更多乐趣的性感尤物，然而她们也背负上了脑袋不灵光的名声。

 

Having a 'blonde moment' has even become a phrase used when someone makes a mistake.

 

Now, a study has found this stereotype² is not only inaccurate³, the opposite could actually be true.

 

Researchers found women who said their natural hair colour was blonde had an average IQ score within 3 points of brunettes and those with red or black hair.

 

Data for the study came from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) - a national survey of people who were between 14 and 21 years old when they were first interviewed in 1979.

 

In 1980, participants in the NLSY79 took the Armed Forces Qualification Test, or AFQT, which is used by the Pentagon to determine the intelligence of all recruits.

 

The overall AFQT score is based on word knowledge, paragraph comprehension, math knowledge and arithmetic reasoning.

 

In 1985, all participants were asked, 'What is your natural hair colour?'

 

To eliminate any bias⁴ in the IQ tests caused by ethnic⁵ and racial differences, Jay Zagorsky from Ohio State University dropped all African Americans and Hispanics from the analysis, reducing the sample size to 10,878 white, females.

 

The findings showed that blonde-haired white women had an average IQ of 103.2, compared to 102.7 for those with brown hair, 101.2 for those with red hair and 100.5 for those with black hair.

 

Blonde women were slightly more likely to be in the highest IQ category than those with other hair colours, and slightly less likely to be in the lowest IQ category.

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