7 Hard-To-Fake Signs Of A Highly Intelligent Person
Number 7: They Think Outside The Box
Many people try to appear smart by, for example, throwing around technical terms or trying to prove their knowledge at every opportunity.
But there are some characteristics that are hard to fake and tell us who is really very intelligent.
Let’s look at what the geniuses of our world have in common apart from a high IQ.
1. Intelligent People Are Funny
A good sense of humor is a clear sign of intelligence and even makes you more attractive as this study published in 2011 shows.
As part of the study, the 400 participants (200 men and 200 women) had to write funny captions for a cartoon, which were then evaluated. A strong correlation between humor and intelligence was found.
A good sense of humor is sexually attractive, perhaps because it reveals intelligence, creativity, and other ‘good genes’ or ‘good parent’ traits. If so, intelligence should predict humor production ability, which in turn should predict mating success.
This is what the abstract of the study says.
Dark humor too. This study shows that especially intelligent people tend to appreciate dark humor.
A total of 156 adults rated black humour cartoons and conducted measurements of verbal and nonverbal intelligence, mood disturbance and aggressiveness. Cluster analysis yields three groups comprising following properties:
high black humour preference and high comprehension; high nonverbal and verbal intelligence
2. They Like Being Alone
Very intelligent people experience less satisfaction than the average person when spending time with other people, as this study shows.
More intelligent individuals experience lower life satisfaction with more frequent socialization with friends.
3. Geniuses Are Open-Minded
High intelligence is also characterized by being open to viewpoints that contradict one’s own and even actively searching for evidence that speaks against one’s own opinion.
Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger are known for this approach, except perhaps in cryptocurrencies. In this case, they do not seem to be too open-minded to me.
4. Curiosity
Geniuses are less likely to accept things as God-given, but rather to question things and try to understand them. This is called intellectual curiosity. It is probably the reason why intelligent people read a lot. After all, reading is the best way to consume knowledge.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, for example, are known for reading as much as possible.
5. They Are Intellectually Humble
Smart people know what they don’t know, which is why they have no problem admitting that they have no idea about a certain topic.
That is also very refreshing, in my opinion. It’s really annoying when people are perceived as experts in every field and try to shine with superficial half-knowledge.
This phenomenon is known as the Dunning- Kruger effect.
The Dunning-Kruger effect is the cognitive bias in which people with low abilities overestimate their abilities on a task. Some researchers also include in their definition the opposite effect in high achievers: their tendency to underestimate their abilities. — Wikipedia
6. Adaptability
Intelligence enables you to adapt your behavior well to external circumstances. These flexible ways of thinking and acting are an enormous advantage in many situations that require adaptation.
7. Thinking Outside The Box
Elon Musk preaches what he calls first principle thinking.
By this, he means an approach to thinking in which one takes leave of conventional knowledge regarding a problem, reconstructs the problems, and thinks them through from scratch.
This is how he was able to achieve his groundbreaking successes with Tesla and SpaceX.
Thanks for reading!
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