A recent U.S. study made on 16,000 women and girls revealed that women with small waists and big hips scored better results at cognitive tests.

The study will be published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior this week.

The study’s authors from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of California, Santa Barbara seem to have answers why men prefer women with smaller waist than hips, who they called curvy women, even if they are compared to their slimmer counterparts.

According to the new discoveries, the fat around the curvy hips and thighs contains higher level of omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential for the good development of the brain during pregnancy. That is the reason why scientists believe that curvier women appear to have children that are more intelligent.

The fat surrounding women’s waist holds omega-6 fatty acids, which are not of so much importance in the development of the brain. Waist fat can also be a major factor in causing diabetes and heart diseases. That is the reason why curvy women seem to live longer as the research shows.

Women who are thin have neither omega-3 nor omega-6 fatty acids. This could help them live longer but do not affect their intelligence too much.

Omega-3 fatty acids seem to be stored in men’s hips too. However, scientists did not analyze whether men with wide hips also have better results at cognitive tests than their slimmer counterparts. This will probably be another theme for some future researches.