Which came first, beauty or intelligence?

I came across an article on Psychology Today, a blog post by the Scientific Fundamentalist called "Beautiful People Really ARE More Intelligent".

We all know that women care a great deal about their beauty, because they know what attracts men. And men care a great deal about status (which may be gotten by intelligence) because they know what attracts women.

Now this got me thinking: why was the title of the blog post worded "Beautiful People Really ARE More Intelligent"? It would be equally valid to say "Intelligent People Really ARE More Beautiful". After all, evolution is not directed, so intelligence is just a strategy, just like beauty. Neither one is better than the other. One (intelligence) is a strategy used by males to reproduce, and the other (beauty) is a strategy used by females to reproduce.

I mentioned in a previous blog post (Men are more intelligent than women) that intelligence is largely a male trait. It is more useful to men, but of little use to women when it comes to mating. The title might upset women, but there is really no reason to be upset. After all it is well known that women are more beautiful than men. It's just obvious enough that there isn't any need for a post to be written about it. And as I've mentioned, intelligence and beauty are just two different strategies.

While intelligence is of little use to women when it comes to mating, both beauty and intelligence are important for men. I shall explain why.

From the female's point of view, on the one hand she would like a provider and protector. A male with status fits the bill. But all else being equal, she will prefer the more beautiful male, because her daughters will have a beauty advantage if she mates with a beautiful man with status than a plain man with status. If the man's status is unknown, she will be attracted to beautiful males, because beauty is often an indicator of intelligence (and intelligence begets status). After all, his mother was beautiful, and so it was likely that she attracted an intelligent man with status.

So physical beauty in a man is preferred by women for two reasons:

1. As an indicator of intelligence (and thus status)
2. A beauty advantage for her daughters, so they will be able to attract (intelligent) men with status
3. Smarter men are more virile

Men on the other hand care little about a woman's intelligence because:

1. It is not necessary for a man to determine a woman's beauty and thus fertility indirectly through her intelligence - it's plain to see!
2. While mating with a intelligent woman would ensure that their sons had a reproductive advantage, it is likely that intelligence in a woman reduces her fertility.
3. Until fairly recently in human evolution, a man didn't need to pick and choose which woman he mated with. Because his investment in procreation was all of about 10 minutes, there was no need to pick and choose. Of course, with the advent of marriage and women as property, the environment changed but his brain didn't much.

This is all very hypothetical, so do post a comment if you have any thoughts.