Zagorsky, Jay L.2020-04-132020-04-132016Jay L. Zagorsky. 2016. "Are blondes really dumb?" Economics Bulletin, Volume 36, pp. 401 - 410.https://hdl.handle.net/2144/40129Discrimination based on appearance has serious economic consequences. Women with blonde hair are often considered beautiful, but dumb, which is a potentially harmful stereotype since many employers seek intelligent workers. Using the NLSY79, a large nationally representative survey tracking young baby boomers, this research analyzes the IQ of white women and men according to hair color. Blonde women have a higher mean IQ than women with brown, red and black hair. Blondes are more likely classified as geniuses and less likely to have extremely low IQ than women with other hair colors, suggesting the dumb blonde stereotype is a myth.pp. 401 - 410en-USThe publisher grants permission to the readers of the Economics Bulletin to use any of our published content (defined as Notes, Comments, Preliminary Results, Research Announcements, Letters to the Editor and Conference Announcements) for any noncommercial purpose. Specially, we grant the right to distribute this content both electronically and via hard copy to further any teaching or research purpose. The two conditions we impose are that no charge be made to distribute our content and that acknowledgment of its publication in the Economics Bulletin be clearly made.DiscriminationIntelligenceHair colorBlondeBrunetteBeautyWagesAFQTIQEconomicsArticle0000-0002-0000-7507 (Zagorsky, JL)47405