Reese Witherspoon, star of the Legally Blonde films

When men meet fair-haired women they really do have a “blonde moment”. Scientists have found that their mental performance drops, apparently because they believe they are dealing with someone less intelligent.

Researchers discovered what might be called the “bimbo delusion” by studying men’s ability to complete general knowledge tests after exposure to different women. The academics found that men’s scores fell after they were shown pictures of blondes.

Further analysis convinced the team that, rather than simply being distracted by the flaxen hair, those who performed poorly had been unconsciously driven by social stereotypes to “think blonde”.

“This proves that people confronted with stereotypes generally behave in line with them,” said Thierry Meyer, joint author of the study and professor of social psychology at the University of Paris X-Nanterre. “In this case blondes have the potential to make people act in a dumber way, because they mimic the unconscious stereotype of the dumb blonde.”

The research adds to a body of evidence that people’s behaviour is powerfully influenced by stereotypes. Previously scientists have found that people walk and talk more slowly in front of the elderly, while other studies have revealed that unconscious racial assumptions and prejudices emerge in written tests.

Researchers believe that blondes have been particularly vulnerable to stereotyping over the past century.

The image of the dizzy blonde came to prominence in the 1925 Anita Loos novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Film stars including Marilyn Monroe, Suzanne Somers and Goldie Hawn further popularised the “dumb blonde”.

Marilyn Monroe: The ultimate ‘dumb blonde’

The persona has more recently been boosted by celebrities such as Paris Hilton, the member of the hotel family nicknamed the “heirhead”, and Jessica Simpson, the singer.

Others believe its origins go far deeper. According to researchers at St Andrews University, north European women evolved blonde hair and blue eyes at the end of the Ice Age to make them stand out from their rivals at a time of fierce competition for scarce males.

Psychologists have suggested that because white babies are often born blonde, there is a primal association between blondness and childhood, encouraging people to admire and fawn over the pale-haired.

The new peer-reviewed study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, was based on two trials.

In all cases those participants exposed to images of blondes recorded the lowest scores.

Real-life blondes were sceptical about the findings. Laura Bailey, the Marks & Spencer model, said: “I’ve always been taken very seriously. I have always been blonde and I have never had an issue with the way I am. If I’m being insulted, then I’m blissfully unaware.”

Michelle Collins, the blonde-haired former EastEnders actress, suspected the results were more to do with men’s approach to sex than intelligence. “I don’t think it’s to do with hair at all; it’s all about the breasts,” she said.

“But if someone walks round with extensions down to their bottom, even I would treat them differently.”

Exactly why and when humans developed blonde hair is a mystery. It appears to have emerged late in evolution after humans had first travelled out of Africa.

Up to a third of women in Britain may look blonde, but only about three per cent are naturally so.

How blondes developed a reputation for dizziness is also unclear, though the likes of Marilyn Monroe may have helped the process along. Certainly “blonde jokes” have become a popular genre. For example...

Q: What do you call a blonde with two brain cells?

A: Pregnant.

Some blondes are of course highly intelligent. Susan Greenfield is an Oxford professor of pharmacology and director of the Royal Institution. The actress Joanna Lumley is a noted environmentalist and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

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Katrina: Pretty, but dumb

Rakhi: Sexy, but dumb

Thank god few Indian women are blonde. (We wish we could say that NO Indian woman is blonde, but alas, we cannot.) If this research is to be believed, if there were more brown-skinned blondes around town, all the men around us would have turned into morons.

There is an Indian counterpart of the dumb blonde, though. The Sardar. In every dumb blonde joke from the West that makes its way to India, the word ‘blonde’ is instantly replaced by the word ‘Sardar’, to ensure that it works just as well amongst the non L’Orealed populace. But does it therefore follow that we act more stupid around Sardars? We hope not.

Since we didn’t have the money to waste to conduct another research into whether stereotypes do affect the way we think (They do? Who would have ever thought!), and we were fairly certain that gentlemen as a rule do not prefer Sardars, we asked a far more pertinent question: what women in our culture have the power to turn men into blithering idiots? We couldn’t ask men that outright, for obvious reasons, so we asked them instead which women they felt looked stupid.

Rakhi Sawant, as it turns out, heads the list. The in-your-face sex symbol who opens her mouth as fast as she drops her clothes. “Rakhi Sawant has ‘dumb’ written all over her. Although many people think she is calculating and manipulative, she actually comes across as being very stupid, someone who puts her foot in her mouth at every possible opportunity. Just watch her on any episode of Nach Baliye and you will know,” chuckles marketing executive Vikramjit Singh.

Not far behind is Mallika Sherawat. “She is undoubtedly one of the sexiest actresses we have, but once Mallika Sherawat opens her mouth, you want to run for cover,” smiles college student Pranjal Dasgupta. Banker Arijit Sen also dismisses the Haryanvi bombshell as the desi Paris Hilton. “I was shocked when Mallika came up with some smart quips on Koffee with Karan. I am sure someone wrote her lines,” says Arijit.

All models are tarred by the airhead brush. Drop-dead gorgeous, but dumb. “That expressionless face on the ramp and that straight-backed walk — female models really come across as being very dumb. The way they talk off the ramp doesn’t do anything to make them seem otherwise,” says Palash Banerjee, employed with a city IT firm.

Models-turned-actors Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone also make it to the ‘dumb and dumber’ list of quite a few men. “Katrina is breathtakingly beautiful, but the smile and that vacant look in her eyes looks very dumb sometimes. I specially remember that Kaun Banega Crorepati episode where she sat next to Salman, didn’t answer a question and just kept on smiling,” says event manager Aditya Sengupta.

Picture-perfect Deepika, despite her dream debut, has not been spared. “There is something about her that is distinctly dumb… especially when she smiles. And the way she goes on and on about how she owes even her life to Shah Rukh Khan and Farah Khan gets on my nerves,” says Debojit Sinha, sales manager.

Others who make it to the list are, somewhat ‘unsportingly’, Mandira Bedi (“pretends she knows everything about cricket, but is plain dumb”) and Sania Mirza (“she says the same things in all her interviews”).

Ajit’s ‘Mona darling’ is still remembered for her dumb eye-candy act. “Mona darling symbolises the dumb moll of Hindi cinema who would just be around for ornamental purposes,” points out freelance photographer Kaustav Saikia.

All of these women are predominantly black haired. But with their alleged bimbo status and oomph to spare, they fit into the dumb blonde mould for sure.

So, if these research findings can be applied to men closer home, you know what to do if you want a dude to dumb down — dress up like Rakhi Sawant and watch him play right into your hands.

Priyanka Roy

Which celebrity do you think looks dumb?Tell t2@abpmail.com