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For years, researchers have been documenting how people try to appear smarter than they are, or use certain criteria to decide whether others are smart or not. Much of this may be steeped in stereotypes but it’s true. “People love to take shortcuts when forming impressions of others,” says Bogdan Wojciszke, a professor of social psychology in Poland. “We tend to make judgments based on easy cues.”
Because we know others will, consciously or unconsciously, form impressions of us, we tend to work hard to give the “right” impressions. These impressions may be invalid but it’s important for us to be seen in certain ways and one of those is appearing smarter than we may actually be.
If you’re looking to improve the first impression you make, look no further. As compiled from Readers’ Digest, here are seven science-backed ways you can look smarter.
Communicate
Ever used a thesaurus when composing e-mails? You’re not the only one. “Smart people have good vocabularies,” says Daniel Oppenheimer, professor of cognitive psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. “People think, ‘If I can show that I have a good vocabulary, I’ll sound smarter’.”
But Daniel’s research indicates authors are actually considered smarter when their writing is easier to understand. Using big words just to impress people may have the opposite effect. “People associate intelligence with clarity of expression,” Daniel says.
Wearing glasses may help
According to a survey by the UK-based College of Optometrists, 43% of people associate glasses with intelligence and 40% consider wearing clear lenses to seem smarter.
“Glasses are easily noticeable and allow us an instant inference without effort,” says Bogdan. “Many people considered wise — like professors, judges and mature statesmen — wear glasses more frequently. Any cue associated with wisdom — thick books, fluent speech, even gray hair — may give rise to the impression of smartness.”
Men, tell some jokes!
A study published in Psychological Reports found that women who overhear men telling funny jokes believe them to be smarter. This is because a certain level of intellect is required to make clever remarks consistently.
“Persons having a good sense of humor show really higher intelligence,” Bogdan says. “So, men can use humor as an easy and honest, hard to fake, cue of intelligence.”
Smile like you mean it
According to a study in the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, people who have authentic smiles, with wrinkles around the eyes, are judged to be more intelligent than those whose smiles seem fake. The judgments here are fueled by hunches.
“People often rely on two types of biases when forming impressions,” says study author Susanne Quadflieg, lecturer in experimental psychology at the University of Bristol. “The so-called ‘halo’ effect: If they have a spontaneously favourable impression of a person — and authentic smiles can elicit a rapid favourable response — they tend to judge other characteristics, like intelligence of the person, also more positively. And the ‘what’s beautiful is good’ effect: If people find someone else attractive — and an authentic smile tends to enhance attractiveness — they are inclined to assign other good qualities to them, like intelligence.”
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Brush up on your reading
In the UK, one survey found that more than half of Britons surveyed in a poll admitted to pretending they’d read classics like War and Peace to seem smarter. But such pretenses cannot last very long.
“Most of our daily interactions with others are very short and superficial,” Bogdan says. “However, we are less easily fooled during prolonged or repeated interactions.”
Make eye contact
Turns out, if someone looks at you while you’re talking, you’re more likely to think they’re smarter. “Good eye contact means the other person is responsive to what you are doing or saying,” Bogdan says. “If he is not responsive, this means that either you are dull or he is dumb. No wonder that having such a choice, most of us prefer to think that he is dumb.”
Also, researchers at Brandeis University in Massachusetts found that conversationalists who maintained eye contact rated higher on IQ tests than those who avoided someone’s gaze.
Being nice counts, too
Bogdan’s work has shown that self-esteem rises when people perceive themselves to be intelligent, but others appreciate different traits. “People will like you not because of your smartness, but because of your warmth and kindness,” he says. “However, besides liking, there is also respecting, and this is based on intelligence, indeed. So, when you want others to like you, present yourself as a person who is nice rather than smart. But if you want others to respect you, present yourself as intelligent, rather than nice.”
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