Partner Preferences of the Intellectually Gifted

To date, hardly anything is known about the partner preferences of the intellectually gifted. The present study therefore examined the extent to which 354 gifted individuals judged 17 characteristics to be important in a (potential) partner and compared these ratings with those obtained from a community sample (n = 554). Among other things, it was expected that, among the gifted, a (potential) partner's high intelligence would be judged to be more important than among participants from the general community. It was also expected that single gifted individuals would judge a potential partner's high intelligence to be more important than gifted individuals involved in intimate relationships. Most of our predictions were supported, and results are discussed.