Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, August 24, 1993                   TAG: 9308240053
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TORONTO                                LENGTH: Medium

JUDGING IQ FROM LOOKS AIN'T SMART, STUDY SAYS

You get smart points if you're attractive; wear a friendly, self-assured expression beneath stylish hair; and sport a well-proportioned body, a new study suggests.

You get demerits if you look unrefined, dress unfashionably or informally and have a round face or a stout body.

None of that, however, reveals much about how intelligent a person really is, at least as measured by standard tests, the study found.

But even a brief listen to the way you talk - apart from what you say - may give strangers a better indicator of brainpower, reports psychology professor of Peter Borkenau of the University of Bielefeld in Germany.

Borkenau described his research Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association. Although the work was done in Germany, he said he believed the results would be similar in the United States.

Researchers have largely overlooked the question of how people perceive intelligence in others, said Delroy Paulhus of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. But now that psychologists are moving away from using IQ as the sole indicator of intelligence, a closer look at what people consider signs of intelligence may give some clues for other measures, he said.

In a separate presentation, psychologist Robert Hogan of the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma said he believes intelligence "exists in the eye of the beholder," and that it is perceived differently in different kinds of occupations.

His work found that diesel mechanics consider their colleagues to be intelligent if they can solve technical problems by themselves. On the other hand, he said, in jobs that involve dealing in abstract concepts, like being a psychologist, "you don't have to do anything, you just have to talk smart."