Do Kids Think Glasses Make Us Look Smarter?
It’s allergy season where I live and that means life for me includes wearing my glasses, almost daily. I have little children who have reacted to my glasses-wearing in a variety of ways. My baby seems to think it’s funny when I raise and lower them and peer out at him above or below. My five-year-old fashion plate thinks her mom is pretty stylish when she’s wearing a designer frame.
But, I wondered what children in general thought about adults who wore glasses. So, I did a little research and found an interesting study from 2012 in the European Journal of Developmental Psychology. Apparently, many children think that wearing glasses means one has superior intelligence!
They asked the children — mostly 5-9 year olds — to draw a smart person or a scientist and in these cases the children would draw this character as wearing glasses. But, when asked to draw a stupid, nice or nasty person, they rarely drew this person wearing glasses.
The scientists felt like the media has done a lot to help reinforce the stereotype that very smart people wear glasses through cartoon and other fictional characters who are usually shown this way. Think about it, character’s like Simon from the Chipmunks and even Bart Simpson’s best friend, Millhouse, wear glasses.
This study confirms what another study from 2008 revealed about children’s feelings toward their spectacle-wearing peers. This study from Ohio State University found that children also viewed other children who wore glasses to be smarter, as well as more honest. The scientists who conducted this study though similarly noted that they thought the children’s opinions were largely based on media stereotypes.
I’ll admit even reading the word scientists makes me think of a person wearing glasses. I guess adults aren’t immune to the stereotypes either. But, many times when you see a doctor, professor, or another person who should be of above average intelligence you find them wearing glasses. This may be because smart people do a lot of reading and, sometimes that excessive reading makes vision problems more noticeable — and thus, people who read a lot may tend to seek out and get vision correction sooner than others in the population.
So, if you’ve ever thought you needed to look a little smarter – maybe you are a teacher who thinks he or she needs a little extra “up” on a class full of students or you’ve got an interview — come to the closest America’s Best and get some “smartening” new fashion eyeglasses today! Find a store now.
