Scientists Determined 9 Weird but True Signs to Tell If a Person Is Intelligent

While some scientists argue which of the indicators is more important — the intelligence quotient (IQ) or emotional intelligence (EQ) — others conduct more comprehensive research to understand how some factors including appearance and behavior can influence a person’s intellectual abilities. And they come up with very unexpected conclusions. It turns out that your height, weight, finger length and even eye color can show the level of your intelligence.

At Bright Side, we want to share with you 9 signs to look for to help spot a gifted person and to find out if you have some of these traits. Maybe a great genius lives within you! However, if these characteristics don’t match your personality, don’t worry, there’s an exception to every rule.

9. You prefer to spend time alone rather than with a noisy group of friends.

Smart people don’t need a large circle of friends to have a good time. The research conducted by Norman Li and Satoshi Kanazawa called, “How intelligence, population density, and friendship affect modern happiness” shows that intelligent people enjoy spending time alone while socializing is more likely to tire them than give them pleasure.

Intelligent people also tend to talk out loud to themselves. This is a sign of advanced intelligence, not madness!

8. You learned how to read at an early age.

The fact that some children learn how to read at an early age doesn’t makes them intelligent by default. On the contrary, British scientists, Stuart J. Richie, Timothy C. Bates and Robert Plomin, believe that reading itself makes these children smarter.

It’s quite obvious: the earlier you studied the alphabet, the more books you’ve managed to read and the broader your horizons are. Of course, this applies to people whose reading experience is diverse and is not limited to only one genre or author.

7. You are an older sibling.

A research published in the Journal of Human Resources proved that older children almost always have a small but statistically significant advantage in terms of IQ: it’s usually 3 points higher. It turned out that this difference is connected not to biological or genetic factors, but to the psychological interaction between parents and children.

6. Your height is above average.

A Princeton study conducted by Anne Case and Christina Paxson showed that taller children often earn more points on IQ tests and are more well-off in adulthood. For example, Steve Jobs’s height was 6’2 ft.

This tendency can be seen in early childhood: fast-growing 3-year-olds do better on different tests than their shorter peers.

5. You used to attend a music school.

Glenn Schellenberg’s study shows that children who attended two different types of music lessons (keyboard or voice) for 9 months had a higher IQ level in comparison to those who had only drama classes or skipped any activities.

In 2013, Glenn Schellenberg even suggested that high IQ is the main reason why these kids decided to pick up music in the first place.

4. You’re overly sensitive to sounds.

Creaking floors, chips crunching and even loud breathing — these common daily noises can be distracting factors for people with a high IQ. Scientists from the University of Helsinki conducted a study which showed a strong connection between the ability of a person to find unconventional solutions to problems and the inability to ignore ambient noise.

There is even a real diagnosis for such a condition called misophony. People with misophony have changes in brain activity when, for example, a person crunches chips next to them.

3. Your ring finger is longer than your index finger.

A Norwegian physician, Karl Pinsk, described the method of determining the inclinations of a person based on the ratio of the length of his fingers. According to the observation, the longer the ring finger is, the better the owner can deal with math problems, however, verbal assignments can be a challenge.

Researcher, John Coates of Cambridge University, found out that a person’s success in the financial world can be predicted by the length of his fingers. It turned out that people whose ring fingers were longer than their index fingers had a higher income.

2. You often feel anxiety and are inclined to panic.

Psychologists, Tsachi Ein-Dor and Organ-Tal from the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya (Israel), conducted a study in which they proved that smart people are more prone to pessimism as they come up with various unpleasant situations that can happen to them in their heads. They argue that intellectuals get used to analyzing the events of the past and accordingly, pay more attention to the possible events in the future.

On the one hand, intelligent people are better prepared for possible difficulties in life while on the other hand, they’re forced to live with constant stress. Do you remember Clever Elsie from the Grimm Brothers’ Fairy Tale? It was not easy for her to live with such advanced intelligence!

1. You swear a lot.

It may sound strange, but the use of abusive words indicates high intellect. Most likely, intelligent people have mastered their vocabulary and use a wide range of words to express their emotions in the most accurate way.

Until recently, there was a popular misconception that the obscene words were most used by poorly educated people because they simply didn’t have a broad vocabulary. But the study conducted by psychologists from Marist College, supervised by Timothy and Christine Jay, showed the opposite: the more educated a person was, the more often he would swear.

Did you recognize yourself in these points? What factors can also influence person’s intelligence? Share with us in the comments!