People can show intelligence in different ways. If you weren’t a straight-A student at school, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your mental abilities are worse than that of others.
What’s more, some people don’t even realize how smart they are. You will be surprised with the fact that your unusual habits might actually be the signs of intelligence or even brilliance.
Signs of a smart person:
1. You accept that you don’t know many things
You might think that a person who pretends to know everything looks smarter. In fact, people who aren’t afraid of sounding stupid are cleverer. Smart people accept their flaws and understand that they need to learn a lot of things.
Research, published in Personal and Social Psychology magazine, was conducted on students. They were asked to take a test, later their answers were compared to the students’ opinions about the correctness of their answers.
It turned out that many of those who scored lower showed a tendency to exaggerate their achievements while students who scored higher underestimated their performance. That is why you shouldn’t be afraid not to know something. This approach will allow you to learn more.
2. You are curious
The acceptance of ignorance makes you smarter, as well as the will to learn more. Scientists have found that people with high IQ were curious in their childhood and have been open to more ideas since they got older. Intelligence and curiosity are intimately connected. Smart people take interest in everyday things as well as global questions, or philosophical issues such as the point of living and the existence of the universe.
3. You have good stamina.
Smart people can control themselves and avoid impulsive decisions.
A group of psychologists from Yale University conducted an experiment on how stamina was connected with intelligence. The participants were given an intelligence test and were offered a financial reward. The participants could take the money right away or wait and then get more money. It turned out that those who chose to wait scored higher on the test. If you weigh up all the pros and cons and can avoid on-the-spot decisions, you are probably a genius.
4. You are open-minded
Smart people have a tendency to look at things from different perspectives instead of focusing on the only correct one. They formulate their opinion, having considered all the options, instead of making hasty conclusions. They are open to new ideas and theories, which increases the level of their intelligence. However, it doesn’t mean they are gullible and fluctuate easily. Such people are confident in their opinions and are harder to manipulate.
5. You love chocolate
There is an interesting connection between cognitive abilities and chocolate. The thing is, cocoa contains compounds that boost thinking ability.
Scientists from the University of Rome in Italy did an experiment to check how chocolate affected brain functions such as memory, attention, and information processing. It turns out that chocolate has a positive impact on all the above-mentioned functions. Besides, if you eat some chocolate every day, your cognitive abilities will improve significantly.
6. You tend to procrastinate
You might not get the feeling of being smart if you postpone everything till the last minute. However, scientists see things differently. If you tend to put things off, it means you plan everything thoroughly and don’t rush to conclusions.
Smart people are always slow because they spend a lot of time on things they think are important, so they keep postponing irrelevant tasks. You shouldn’t think that procrastination is a waste of time because even scientists have proved that such habits as doodling or daydreaming are the signs of intelligence.
7. You can’t stand noise.
If you prefer to work in complete silence, you can easily say that you have something in common with Charles Darwin, Franz Kafka, and Anton Chekhov. A lot of bright people could only work in silence and often complained about the inability to focus because of background noise.
You might think that a smart person can zone out, however, it’s not always true. If you are distracted by conversations, footstep sounds, chewing, or other noise, your brain functions differently. Scientists have checked the decision-making ability of 100 different people. The participants who struggled to concentrate often made creative and innovative decisions. The professionals came to the conclusion that people who are distracted by noise can focus on various stimuli, which means their creative thinking is developed better.
8. You can make connections between things that are completely different.
If you see a particular pattern which is not always visible to others, you have creative thinking. Many people see schemes, however, only smart people manage to see them more quickly and almost everywhere.
The ability to make connections between things that are completely different indicates that you are actually smart. It means you are not biased and take things as they are.
9. You enjoy your own company.
If you aren’t bored when you’re alone and don’t have FOMO you are certainly an intelligent person. According to psychologists, people who enjoy being on their own are smarter.
What’s more, you are intelligent if you talk to yourself. Repetition of words out loud helps to memorize them better. That is why you shouldn’t think that you’re crazy.
10. You finish other people’s sentences.
If you have the ability to predict what a person might want to say or their emotional response, it indicates your high emotional intelligence. The ability to walk in other people’s shoes and guess people’s emotions enables you to see the world from a different perspective. Such people are more open to communication and new experience, which positively impacts intelligence.
