As a strawberry blonde I’ve had my fair share of fair-haired jokes and while most roll right off my back, occasionally I want to pull out my SAT, GMAT, GRE and other various standardized measurements.

Can you be dumb and make a perfect score on the quantitative sections? I suppose it is statistically possible….

The Sunday Times (UK) reports on a study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology that set out to determine the effect blondes have on male performance….

Intellectual performance that is.

After correcting for the potential distraction, men were shown pictures of fair-headed women. The result, the men performed noticeably worse on the tests. The men unconsciously mimicked the “dumb blonde stereotype.”

This is closely related to the result shown in a separate study that determined people walk and talk more slowly in front of the elderly.

So perhaps before you lash out at the lovely blonde, consider that she may have more power over you than you care to acknowledge publicly.

You silly boys: blondes make men act dumb

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