For most people seeking a serious relationship, unintelligent people are very much not ideal romantic partners; although stupid people can be physically attractive, their lack of brains tends to be a turn-off for people seeking a long-term relationship. Still, there are some people for whom stupidity is not a turn-off or a flaw, but a desirable trait in a partner.
For characters who are Aroused by Idiocy, a lack of intelligence is something that they actively seek when looking for relationships. There are numerous reasons for this; perhaps they think stupid people are easy and don't take much effort to seduce or impress. Another reason is pride; they want to make themselves feel smarter by dating/marrying someone of inferior intelligence and enjoy having someone depend on them. Alternatively, they might not be attracted to low intelligence per se, but turned off by high intelligence; after all, smart people are less likely to fall for Terrible Pickup Lines, more likely to have high standards, and are willing to challenge and stand up to mistreatment. They may also find stupidity charming as well.
While this trope is sometimes portrayed as a humorous quirk, some works portray this sort of attraction as predatory; since less intelligent people are easier to manipulate and abuse, it only makes sense that they would be easy prey for potential predators. Characters portrayed in this light tend to not see the targets of their affections as actual people but as trophies and/or playthings. Naturally, which tone this takes usually depends on the gender; men who desire dumb women are more likely to be portrayed as predatory than vice-versa.
Note: A character who just so happens to be attracted to a stupid person or who is attracted to someone despite their stupidity is not this trope; this trope is for characters who are attracted to someone because of their low intelligence similar to how Geeky Turn-On involves someone being attracted to someone for their brains.
Inverted Trope to Geeky Turn-On, which is about characters being attracted to smart people.
See also Brainless Beauty, who are commonly targeted by these characters. Compare Crazy in the Head, Crazy in the Bed, which like this trope but with mental illness rather than stupidity. Compare We Want Our Idiot Back! for platonic examples. Compare All Girls Want Bad Boys, which also involves a generally undesirable trait (immorality) being considered attractive.
Contrast Enraged by Idiocy and Surrounded by Idiots, who are very much not attracted to stupid people. Also contrast I Love You Because I Can't Control You, which is about people being attracted to those who can challenge them, something an unintelligent person is unlikely to do.
Examples:
- Scott Pilgrim: Ramona Flowers is explicitly noted in the early volumes to be attracted to Scott because of his "simple-mindedness." Later, as both of their Character Developments begin to take hold, it turns into genuine affection and love because of his willingness to fight for her and his growing self-awareness and self-improvement.
- In The Loud House fanfic Sleuth or Consequences (My Version)
, Nolan thinks that Leni thinking "zebra" is a colour is "cute".
- In this She-Ra fan comic, Catra declares she's a proud "Moronosexual."
- Beauty and the Beast: Gaston plays with this trope a bit; on the one hand, he desires Belle, who is far from stupid, as his wife for her beauty. On the other hand, he is a sexist and anti-intellectual guy who thinks that women shouldn't read, think, or have ideas, and tries to convince Belle to give up her love of books and become a housewife.
- This trope is invoked by Body Heat's Femme Fatale Matty as she tries to seduce Amoral Attorney Ned so he kills her husband:
Matty: You aren't too smart, are you? I like that in a man.
- SCTV: The series did an Affectionate Parody of the preview for Body Heat, called Prickley Heat, starring Edith Prickley (Andrea Martin) in the role of Matty, and E. Charles Bronson (Joe Flaherty) in the role of Ned.
Edith: Boy, are you stupid! I like that in a man.
- Persona 5: Suguru Kamoshida is a Played for Horror example; he's a Creepy Gym Coach who sexually harasses his female students, and his Palace shows that he views them as nothing but mindless bimbos who exist solely to satisfy his urges. It's also played with a bit as two of the girls he lusts after, Ann and Shiho, are reasonably intelligent and repulsed by him, but Kamoshida's cognitions (clones that represent how a Palace ruler views a person) of them show that he simply thinks of them this way.
- Etra chan saw it!: Akamatsu cheats on and later divorces Karin to be with Akane because Karin isn't reliant on him in regards to household tasks, while Akane is. Karma soon bites him when Akane's wasteful spending and inability to do household chores cause him to regret his decision, and he's unable to divorce Akane without having to pay a huge settlement fee to Karin.
- Manga Soprano: Yui and Mai attempt to exploit this trope by pretending to be airheaded in order to be popular with guys, only to end up being rejected for being fake and unpleasant. Meanwhile, Kanade, a natural airhead, ends up winning the affections of the guys without trying to because they find her antics amusing.
- Otakebi: Sayaka's brother-in-law combines this trope with Be Careful What You Wish For; he openly admits that he hates smart women and prefers stupid women; as a result of his thinking, he marries a Womanchild who is extremely dependent on him and lacks a lot of common sense. This trope is deconstructed when his wife puts them in debt as a result of destroying an expensive kimono for being made of silk and she refuses to take responsibility and her parents don't want to take her back because of her stupidity. Reconstructed when the husband decides that dealing with her stupidity is simply the price of having an unintelligent wife.
- Cyanide and Happiness features a comic where a man and a woman are having sex, and as the woman approaches orgasm, she says "Talk to me like you're a fucking idiot!" When the man responds with a bewildered "Huh?" she screams "That's perfect!" and climaxes.
- The Rising of the Shield Hero: The women in Motoyasu's party mix this trope with Gold Digger and Pretty Freeloaders; part of the reason why they join him is that he's an idiot who thinks with his libido, which makes him easy to leech off of and manipulate. Motoyasu is so blind to the fact that the women in his party are manipulating him that he doesn't realize it until they say so directly to his face once he's become too much of a liability that they couldn't stand him.
- Sword Art Online Abridged: Played For Black Comedy with Nobuyuki Sugou, who plans to brainwash his future wife/Sex Slave Asuna, who while not brilliant is certainly not a Brainless Beauty in addition to being extremely strong-willed, and rewrite her personality to a mixture of "Leave It to Beaver and hardcore porn." Naturally, this is played as a predatory act and drives in how despicable Sugou is.
- A Tumblr post◊ explains how a user started dreaming of kissing a person after they asked them what the Spanish word for "tortilla" was. The same person then asked the user what kind of animal The Pink Panther is.
me, already taking off my clothes: benjamin you're so fucking stupid
- MacAir Texts
- Marcus downplays this trope; while he does like smart girls, he doesn't want a girl that's smarter than him, and he states that if he had a choice between marrying a girl who's smarter than him, and an airhead, he would choose the latter. It's because of this preference cheats on his intelligent girlfriend Bea with tbe less intelligent Rachel. He's also a deconstruction of this trope, as Bea's greater intelligence actually helped him on his work, yet rather than appreciating it, he resented her because of his fragile pride, and when Rachel's stupidity proves to be a liability, he wants to dump her. All-in-all, a person who would date stupid people to stroke their own ego probably isn't too smart themselves.
- Alex cheated on and dumped his fiance Catherine to be with her sister Nicole. His reason for doing so is that he felt pressured by the fact that Catherine was "too perfect", as she went to a better college than him, makes more money than him, and is good at housework on top of that. By contrast, Nicole is less competent and more reliant on him, which makes him feel more manly. His choice soon bites him in the ass, when Nicole's incompetence is too much for him to handle, and he actually has the gall to beg Catherine to get back together with him so he can leech off of her, only to find out too late that Catherine has moved on from him for another man who actually appreciates her intelligence and thinks Alex is an idiot leaving Catherine rather than improve himself.
- Marcus
- Family Guy: Discussed; In "Jerome Is the New Black", Glenn Quagmire accuses Brian Griffin of the manipulative version of this during his "Reason You Suck" Speech:
"And what really bothers me is you pretend you're this deep guy who loves women for their souls when all you do is date bimbos. Yeah, I date women for their bodies but at least I'm honest about it. I don't buy them a copy of Catcher in the Rye and then lecture them with some seventh grade interpretation of how Holden Caulfield is some profound, intellectual. He wasn't! He was a spoiled brat! And that's why you like him so much...he's you!"
- The Owl House: Downplayed; in "Wing It Like Witches" where Amity Blight has a Freudian Slip and admits that she finds Luz Noceda's reckless stupidity attractive, though it's clear that her being a nice person plays a much bigger role in Amity's crush.
Amity: She can be so stupid, which I love, (blushes) I mean hate! In any case, she needs you right now, which is sweet, (blushes again) I mean, I hate it, and it's dumb!
