A new study published in the Nature Communications Journal by researchers at the University of Edinburgh,, has found a link between higher levels of intelligence and people who need to wear glasses. The study which is the largest of its kind ever conducted, found intelligent people are 30 per cent more likely to have genes linked to poorer eyesight.
For their study more than 300,000 people aged between 16 and 102 had been gathered to analyse both cognitive and genetic data by the UK Biobank and the Charge and Cogent consortia.
Their analysis found “significant genetic overlap between general cognitive function, reaction time, and many health variables including eyesight, hypertension, and longevity”. Specifically, people who were more intelligent were almost 30% more likely to have genes which might indicate they’d need to wear glasses.
It has been proved by a number of studies that people who wear glasses are perceived as smarter, more dependable, industrious and honest. Which is why a lot of defense lawyers get their clients to wear glasses at trial. As lawyer Harvey Slovis explained to New York magazine: “Glasses soften their appearance so that they don’t look capable of committing a crime. I’ve tried cases where there’s been a tremendous amount of evidence, but my client wore glasses and got acquitted. The glasses create a kind of unspoken nerd defense.”
> Shiuly Rina
