Are Intelligent People Misunderstood?

Snobbish, snooty, haughty, conceited and many other adjectives are attributed to introverts while the real reason for their aloofness is they lack self assurance. Similarly, people of high intelligence are often seen as strange. 

It’s a human trait to view anything or anyone that is not within the bounds of what is accepted as normal,  to be seen as odd and sometimes even bizarre. 

Although, personally I haven’t seen anything or anyone ‘normal’. Average yes, but normal no.

A vast majority of us, about 68%, have an IQ between 85 and 115. The average IQ in most countries is around 98 with females usually scoring just a little higher than males. 

It’s a very small percentage that has an IQ below 70 and above 130.

Given the numbers, quite undoubtedly, those with an IQ of say above 125 think differently and are generally not interested in talking about subjects that fall within the usual accepted social norms. 

Wandering Minds

Imagine you’re a high IQ person in a group of those with average intelligence. 

While they are talking about topics such as which place serves the best wine, which films are currently there to be watched and how to grow tomatoes using seeds you’re mind is distracted and you are thinking about existentialism, endangered species of bald eagles and western gorillas, how trees are empathetic to each other, implanting chips in human brains so that they can deal better with neurological conditions and so on. 

And then if you dare to contribute your thoughts into the discussion, what do you think you will be viewed as? 

As a brilliant person, you certainly do not have it easy on a day to day basis at the social level. 

Sure enough, what most of us might find difficult to understand, such as Topology, Number Theory, Signal processing and so on, for you it’s all a breeze. 

But life isn’t easy. Given that you must play down on your intelligence or it’ll be seen as self-glorification. 

It’s also not easy for you to keep stepping down those few rungs only to be seen like everyone else.

On the other hand, since you are naturally smarter or even gifted, the life choices you will make are likely to be more resourceful and astute compared to us average mortals. 

As Scott Adams the creator of Dilbert put it: “of course a smart person’s choices would be different than yours, they’re smarter.”

What Do The Scientists Say?

Scientific studies have gone on to prove that your thinking is more complex and is co-related to many different emotions and psychological traits which in the end make you socially awkward. 

This study in particular states: “Mass media is portraying highly intelligent people as having noticeable deficits in their social skills. 

Shows such as The Big Bang Theory are very popular and watched by millions. 

This suggests that the population has a perception of intelligent individuals being odd and not having many friends. 

This study looks at how perceived intelligence affects the likability of an individual. 

The perception of intelligence was raised or lowered according to the grade level of the words used in several descriptive paragraphs. 

Non-verbal cues were eliminated by using written paragraphs rather than individuals speaking. 

It was expected that perceived intelligence would be inversely correlated with likability, and that this bias against higher intelligence would be stronger for a hypothetical woman being rated than for a hypothetical man. 

Support was found for the basic hypothesis that perceived intelligence was negatively correlated with perceived likeableness, but this negative relationship was no stronger for women than it was for men.

Another study suggests that those having an IQ of 126 and more can be less extrovert out of choice but have a richer inner life. There are compensations after all.

Support us!

All your donations will be used to pay the magazine’s journalists and to support the ongoing costs of maintaining the site.