Human beings are mostly primed by evolution to be optimistic, but it is not always the best policy.
Fluid intelligence refers to the raw speed at which the brain works.
Fluid intelligence refers to the raw speed at which the brain works.
A hunger for new, unconventional ideas is one of the strongest indicators of high IQ, research finds.
People with high IQs are intellectually curious and enjoy things like unusual activities, philosophical arguments and brain teasers.
This desire for new ideas is linked to an aspect of IQ called fluid intelligence.
Fluid intelligence refers to the speed at which the brain works.
It is like the raw power of an engine or the speed at which a computer can process information.
Fluid intelligence is contrasted with crystallised intelligence.
Crystallised intelligence is something like general knowledge: the information that people have learnt about the world over the years.
The conclusions come from a study of 2,658 employees working at 10 different companies in the UK.
They were all given tests of personality and intelligence.
The results showed that high fluid intelligence was linked to hunger for new ideas.
Like an interest in ideas, being willing to try new activities was also linked to intelligence, the authors write:
“Actions refers to willingness to try different activities, and to a preference for novelty and variety over familiarity and routine.
Fluid intelligence involves things like reaction times, quick thinking, reasoning, seeing relationships and approaching new problems.
This means that individuals high on [fluid intelligence] have an innate ability to cope more efficiently with novel experiences, and to deal with intellectually stimulating tasks such as brain teasers, which would thus make it rewarding for them to pursuit such activities.
Similarly, individuals low on [fluid intelligence] may in time grow to avoid such activities, due to their low ability to handle them, which would thus make them less rewarding.”
The study was published in the journal Learning and Individual Differences (Moutafi et al., 2006).
People with high IQs tend to share this quality.
People with high IQs tend to share this quality.
More intelligent people tend to follow rules and be less aggressive and better behaved, research finds.
People with higher IQs are also less likely to cheat and steal.
Young people with lower IQs, though, are more likely to take part in antisocial behaviour, such as harassing or alarming others.
Boys who are antisocial have an average IQ 10 points lower than their more social counterparts.
For antisocial girls, the IQ gap is 5 points lower than their more social peers.
The conclusions come from a study of more than 1,000 young people in the UK.
All were given tests of IQ and externalising behaviour.
For psychologists, externalising behaviour refers to physical aggression, flouting rules, stealing and cheating.
The results showed that fewer externalising behaviours were linked to higher IQ.
In contrast, those with lower IQs were at greater risk of antisocial behaviour.
The study’s authors write:
“Low IQ is a consistent risk factor for emergence and continuity of antisocial behavior across the life course in both prospective and cross-sectional studies, even when other relevant risk factors are statistically controlled.”
Genetic factors are likely important in the link, as well as situational factors, the authors write:
“…cognitive deficits might promote antisocial behavior if children with low IQs misunderstand rules, find it too difficult to negotiate conflict with words, find school frustrating, or become tracked with antisocial peers.”
The study was published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology (Koenen et al., 2008).
This valuable and dynamic ability is linked to higher intelligence.
This valuable and dynamic ability is linked to higher intelligence.
People with above average intelligence are seen as better leaders by others, research finds.
The best IQ score for leading a group is 118.
That is 18 points higher than the average of 100 — making them smarter than around 80 percent of people.
Leaders who are around this much smarter than their followers are seen as the most effective.
However, being too intelligent is linked to worse leadership, the study also found.
It may be that highly intelligent leaders struggle to understand the challenges faced by less gifted workers.
They may also be worse at simplifying jobs and using straightforward language.
In other words, a leader who is too smart may be hard to understand.
The conclusions come from a study of 379 mid level managers working at seven multinationals.
They were rated by their peers, supervisors and subordinates, along with taking IQ and personality tests.
The results revealed that women were generally seen as better leaders, as were slightly older people.
However, the authors explain that these results hold only for mid-level managers:
“Our conclusions are limited too by the fact that the sample consisted of mid level leaders rather than company CEOs who might exhibit far more task-oriented than social-emotional leadership.
We would then expect CEOs to display much higher IQ peaks than those observed here, as well more Conscientiousness and less Agreeableness!
In partial support for this conjecture, recent research suggests that leaders in the top 1% of general intelligence are disproportionately represented among Fortune 500 CEOs.”
Another kink is that the effectiveness of a leader’s intelligence depends on the people they are leading.
More intelligent groups need even more intelligent leaders.
The authors write:
“…Sheldon Cooper, the genius physicist from “The Big Bang Theory” TV series is often portrayed as being detached and distant from normal folk, particularly because of his use of complex language and arguments.
[…] Sheldon could still be a leader—if he can find a group of followers smart enough to appreciate his prose!”
The study was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology (Antonakis et al., 2017).
These traits are all linked to having higher intelligence.
These traits are all linked to having higher intelligence.
Having an active fantasy life, appreciating beauty, being emotionally sensitive and wide-ranging curiosity are linked to high IQ, research finds.
All of these are components of the major personality trait of ‘openness to experience’.
People who are open to experience are more interested in things that are complex, new and unconventional.
They are sensitive to their feelings, intellectually curious and seekers of variety.
Curiosity has an especially strong link to high IQ.
This may be because higher intelligence drives a ‘cognitive hunger’.
This encourages people to seek out new experiences to satiate the hunger.
The conclusions come from a study of 17,415 people from the UK.
They were given intelligence and personality tests and followed for 40 years.
The results showed the remarkable strength of the link between openness to experience and IQ.
The study’s authors explain their results:
“…childhood intelligence is indeed positively associated with adult trait Openness, even when it was assessed almost four decades earlier when participants were at 11 years.
Intelligence may influence the development of personality in that intelligent people develop habits to satisfy their curiosity and ‘‘cognitive hunger’’ which are an essential ingredient of Openness.”
The study’s authors think that it is high IQ that drives openness to experience:
“Parents of higher socioeconomic status may foster children’s trait Openness by providing better resources such as choosing good schools and cultural environment (theaters, museums, traveling abroad, etc.); intelligent children tend to use more mental activities (such as abstract ideas, learning new vocabularies, or math formulas) than those who are less intelligent; school settings (quality of teaching, good facilities) may enhance pupils to engage more in school learning.
All these three factors may influence educational and
occupational achievement, which in turn, may increase
the scores on Openness.”
The study was published in the Journal of Individual Differences (Furnham & Cheng, 2016).
An easy way to tell that you have higher intelligence.
An easy way to tell that you have higher intelligence.
Being a free spirit and refusing to conform with others is a sign of high IQ, research finds.
People with higher intelligence are less likely to follow the crowd, preferring to make their own decisions.
As a species, humans are remarkably open to social influence: people like to copy others, feeling that there is safety in numbers.
However, the effect can be damaging as some will deny their own senses to go along with others.
Instead, those with higher IQs only follow the crowd strategically.
For the study, 101 people were given a test that involved comparing the lengths of different lines.
They only had to decide which was longest, but not until they had been informed what other people thought.
The results clearly showed that people would deny information from their own senses to fit in with what other people thought.
In other words, many people preferred to be in the majority, rather than to be correct.
However, more intelligent people were less likely to go along with the majority.
The classic study on social influence (the Asch conformity experiment) was carried out by Professor Solomon Asch almost 70 years ago.
He found that 76% of people denied their own senses at least once to go along with others.
Often, though, social conformity is no bad thing, said Dr Michael Muthukrishna, who led the study:
“People are conformist – and that’s a good thing for cultural evolution.
By being conformist, we copy the things that are popular in the world.
And those things are often good and useful.
Our whole world is made up of things that we do that are good for us, but we don’t know why.
And we don’t need to know why.
We just need to know that most people do those things.”
→ Discover 22 more signs of intelligence.
The study was published in the journal Evolution and Behavior (Muthukrishna et al., 2015).
This bold and confident sign is linked to higher academic achievement.
This bold and confident sign is linked to higher academic achievement.
People who are very sure of their intellectual abilities are, in fact, smarter than others, research finds.
Intellectual arrogance was linked to achieving higher grades in the study.
People who are intellectually arrogant tend to agree with statements like, “I believe my own ideas are superior to others.”
People are seen as intellectually arrogant by others when they are extraverted and dominate the group, wanting to be the centre of attention.
Professor Wade C. Rowatt, study co-author, said:
“One possibility is that people who view themselves as intellectually arrogant know what they know and that translates to increases in academic performance.”
For the study, the work of 103 students was followed over a semester.
The results showed that those who felt they were superior to others performed better in their coursework.
However, people who were more humble about their abilities were liked better by their peers.
So, intellectual arrogance may come with a penalty to social relationships.
The study’s authors were surprised by the results: they had predicted that intellectual humility would be linked to better performance.
However, this was not the case.
Dr Benjamin R. Meagher, the study’s first author, still thinks humility is a vital trait:
“What I think is important about intellectual humility is its necessity for not only science, but for just learning generally — and that applies to the classroom, a work setting, wherever.
Learning something new requires first acknowledging your own ignorance and being willing to make your ignorance known to others.
People clearly differ in terms of their willingness to do something like that, but that willingness to learn, change one’s mind and value the opinion of others is really needed if people and groups are going to develop and grow.”
The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Meagher et al., 2015).
There is a particular musical skill that indicates higher intelligence.
There is a particular musical skill that indicates higher intelligence.
People who have higher IQs can keep a beat more precisely, a study has found.
Those in the study with higher IQs found it easier to keep a regular beat on a drum pad.
The reason may be that good timing is vital to solving problems and the efficiency of the brain.
Brain scans revealed that people with higher intelligence had more white matter in parts of the brain important for problem-solving, planning and managing time.
These factors were also linked to an improved ability to keep time.
So, better timing is built in to the brains of more intelligent people at a fundamental level.
Professor Fredrik Ullén, a pianist and neuroscientist who led the study, said:
“It’s interesting as the task didn’t involve any kind of problem solving.
Irregularity of timing probably arises at a more fundamental biological level owing to a kind of noise in brain activity.”
The study included 34 people who tried to copy the clicking of a metronome by hitting a drum pad.
They were given 20 beats to warm up, then they had to keep the same rhythm going for a further 45 beats.
The results showed that the more intelligent people were, the better they could keep time when the metronome stopped.
Professor Ullén said:
“All in all, this suggests that a factor of what we call intelligence has a biological basis in the number of nerve fibres in the prefrontal lobe and the stability of neuronal activity that this provides.”
Faster brains make quicker perceptual judgements as well as being better at solving puzzles or analysing decisions.
For example, people with higher IQs find it easier to tell which way an object is moving.
The study was published in the Journal of Neuroscience (Ullén et al., 2008).
People with higher IQ have this cheerful quality.
People with higher IQ have this cheerful quality.
Feeling happy and satisfied is linked to having a higher IQ, research finds.
In fact, experiencing positive emotions, feeling lively and wide awake all predict higher intelligence.
The conclusions come from two studies of 440 people who completed tests of personality and well-being/happiness.
When given a task to do, people with higher intelligence were less stressed both before and afterwards, as well as being more engaged, researchers found.
People who were happier and more lively were also more likely to agree with statements like:
Positive answers to these questions matched up with an actual fluid intelligence test they were given.
In other words, smart people were right about being smart, they didn’t just ‘feel’ smart.
Fluid intelligence refers to the speed at which the brain works.
It is like the raw power of an engine or the speed at which a computer can process information.
The study’s authors conclude:
“The results indicated that Intellect was generally associated with lower stress (low distress and worry and high task engagement) before and after intelligence tests.”
Even without being given a test to do, people with higher IQs felt happier and more energetic.
The reason that IQ and happiness are linked could be down to how much importance is placed on being smart in Western cultures.
The authors write:
“It is striking that Intellect was correlated with affect even in Study 1, in which there was no requirement to perform an intellectual task.
At least in Western cultures, intellect may be of sufficient importance to the self-schema that it influences general emotional functioning.”
The study was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Zajenkowskia & Matthews, 2019).
Research demonstrates how to use your eyes and voice to project a higher IQ.
Research demonstrates how to use your eyes and voice to project a higher IQ.
Maintaining eye contact while talking is one of the easiest ways to appear smarter, research finds.
Other common ways to appear smarter include speaking pleasantly, clearly and quickly.
The handy tip comes from a study in which people were recorded while trying to act smart discussing an assigned topic.
This condition was compared to people who were given no instruction about how to act.
Judges viewed the video and rated the person’s apparent intelligence.
Maintaining eye contact while speaking was rated as giving the smartest appearance.
Indeed, intelligence tests revealed that people who maintained eye contact were actually smarter.
Two other signs of high IQ were:
However, neither of these was linked to people’s measured intelligence.
Still, you could use them, as it creates the right impression.
Other ways to look more intelligent were:
People did not use these methods spontaneously, though.
The study’s authors conclude:
“Looking while speaking was a key behavior: It significantly correlated with IQ, was successfully manipulated by impression-managing targets, and contributed to higher perceived intelligence ratings.”
Along with more eye contact, other ways of appearing more intelligent are listed by the study’s authors:
“…pleasant speech style, clear or easy-to-understand communication, and faster speech rate all have been associated with higher perceived intelligence ratings.”
The study was published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (Murphy, 2007).
Join the free PsyBlog mailing list. No spam, ever.
