(Mirror Daily, United States) – It is the fall of the dumb blonde myth as a team of Ohio researchers discovered that blonde women are not only not silly, but they are actually smarter than their brunette, red-haired or flaxen-haired counterparts. Blonde men also fared well in the study.

“What is IDK?” asks a blonde, “I Don’t Know,” answers the brunette. “Nobody knows,” sighs the blonde. And that is just one example of the many, sometimes very mean jokes about blonde women. Most of them focus on the fact that sun-kissed women are dumber than all other females.

But the dumb blonde stereotype is just a myth, and a team of researchers from Ohio University just debunked it.

In order to test the validity of the stereotypes that link hair color with the level of intelligence, the team gathered a sample of 10,878 participants. The volunteers were both males and females with a variety of hair colors, natural or dived.

All of the participants in the study were asked to complete the “Armed Forces Qualification Test,” which is an IQ test used by the Pentagon to test the new recruits.

Needless to say, blondes fared well. In fact, the sun-kissed females obtained better results than all of their other female competitors.

According to the published results, the average IQ of a tested blonde woman was of 103.2 points, just a bit above 102.7, the score of brown haired women. Next, on the list were the fire-kissed beauties with 101.2, followed by the brunettes with 100.5.

And that is not all, blonde women scored the most “genius” results, as all of their other female peers. Furthermore, they are even less likely to score a very low IQ score than all other hair colors. In conclusion, the myth wasn’t just debunked; it was shattered by the Ohio researchers.

The findings also favor blonde men. Their average score was of 103.9, just a tad lower than the first runners-up, the brown haired males who managed to obtain 104.4 points. The third place is occupied by the redheads and the forth, just like in the case of the ladies, by the black-haired men.

But the research serves a little more purpose than just putting a stop to cruel jokes that circulate the World Wide Web. Previous studies have shown that employers are more likely to hire a person with a hair colored different than blonde because they are subconsciously looking for an individual who inspires intelligence.

Image source: Pixabay