Online Dating for Geniuses Only

“Common sense is not so common,” Voltaire proclaimed three centuries ago. And it would seem that Mensa agrees, as it’s teamed up with Match.com to develop a sub-race of genius daters.

Indeed, Mensa Match will weed out the non-Einsteins in a bid to pair the smarty-pants of America together, only hooking up users in the lightly trodden land of the 98th percentile. It promises to “help Mensans meet and find friendships and love with Mensans or other people outside of the organization who share similar interests”—but only if those interests put them in the USA’s band of singles with a 132+ IQ.

According to Match.com’s Chief Scientific Advisor Dr. Helen Fisher, people want a smart partner because “intelligence is correlated with many benefits, including: higher income; sense of humor; creativity; social skills; coordination; and problem solving. These are sexy,” she said. “Money can buy a sexy evening on the town,” she continued. “People everywhere gravitate to smart lovers, because an intelligent partner comes with a host of sexy perks.”

This new focus on dating smart came about after Match.com quizzed its users on what they wanted from a potential suitor. 80 percent of singles said they “must have” or find it “very important” to be with someone of the same intelligence level, while 89 percent would make a commitment to someone who was considerably better educated or more intellectual than themselves. And with 57,000 Mensa members in the US and 6 million citizens eligible for a spot in the world’s most renowned academic club, the dating potential for the new splinter site is fairly big.

"I'm looking for people who are intellectually curious,” Mensa Match user Anne

Sereg told CNN. “And when all you're talking about is sports teams and barbeques ... when you're talking about physical traits and not existential philosophy, I'm not going to get the vibe."

For those who aren’t so keen on online dating (or just didn’t do well enough to get on Mensa Match), the site also pinpoints the nation’s smartest singles in a handy

infographic—so you know which bars you need to be hitting to pick up high-scoring hotties. Durham, North Carolina took pole position while NYC ranked 11th, and Las Vegas beat out San Francisco by four spots to take 15th place.

So just how easy is it to get into Mensa Match? I took the quiz to find out.

Step 1: Enter your details. This is the easy part, like where you score points for writing your name correctly on your SATs. You don’t get points for doing that on Mensa’s test, though. Sigh.

Step 2: Take the test. Y’know, fill in the answers and stuff. It gives you a mixture of sequential number questions, synonyms, and odd-one-out pictures. The last of these is kind of a double test as some of those images are pretty unclear. But even if you can’t figure out what it is, you can just click the buttons randomly until you get one of the easy ones. Fun!

Step 3: Await your results, which here means bide your time until impending doom and/or being cast out from your family as a result of your woeful score. Thankfully, I have a high-speed Internet connection, so my doom window was but fleeting.

Step 4: Look at your results. Process them in your mind. Re-evaluate the choices you have made in your life thus far. Resolve to do more weird picture puzzles in your spare time.

I scored 66/80 (which apparently puts me in the 86th percentile with an IQ somewhere between 116-125), so I can take comfort in the fact that I am marginally smarter than some humans, but significantly less so than Mensa’s 2-year-old members.

Step 5: Make all of your less intelligent friends take the test so that you have proof that you are not the dumbest person you know. If they all do better than you, get new friends.

Match.com is owned by IAC. IAC is The Daily Beast’s parent company.