7 Subtle Traits Of People Who Are More Intelligent Than Everyone Else, According To Psychology
How to increase your intelligence by changing your behavior.
George Milton | Canva Did you ever say something regretfully dumb when angry? That’s our malleable intelligence at play. I’ve always argued that intelligence is changeable. There are different kinds of intelligence, too — from social to verbal, to spatial and linguistic.
Here, we’re focusing on the traits that signal someone's general ability to take in and interpret information more effectively that average people.
Here are 7 subtle traits of people who are more intelligent than everyone else, according to psychology:
1. They're precious about their time
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Humans are highly well-attuned to the need to survive in an often threatening environment. When resources are limited, and we have a goal in mind, our senses are heightened to aid us in working toward a solution.
For example, if we’re being chased by a bear, our minds sharpen. Our focus is on nothing but survival.
We can emulate this by restricting time. We can add deadlines, social accountability, timed work sprints, challenges, and crystal-clear objectives to our days and weeks.
Research referenced by productivity platform Monday shows that time blocking significantly improves effectiveness by enhancing focus, reducing distractions, promoting better time management, and allowing for prioritized task completion, leading to increased productivity and reduced stress by providing a structured workday with clear boundaries for different activities.
2. They know how to calm their mind
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Our intelligence and a relaxed body are inextricably linked. Many of us operate under the belief that if we’re grinding teeth and all scrunched up, we’ll do better.
We never do. Our minds become still when we’re calm. When our minds are still, we can tap into our innate wisdom.
You know this to be true because you’ve received the best ideas when calm and feeling good. Right? So, spend a moment focusing on your breath and allowing your shoulders to drop. This is the gateway to true intelligence.
Research conducted by the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation shows that taking time to relax can significantly improve effectiveness by reducing stress, enhancing focus, boosting creativity, and improving overall mental well-being, leading to better performance in work and personal life. Studies indicate that regular relaxation breaks can lead to increased productivity and better decision-making abilities when returning to tasks.
3. They minimize their choices
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It’s easy to think we’re doing ourselves a favor by having more options and ideas to pursue some objective. Perhaps you have an essay to write, and you’re considering what to write about. There’s a reason we stall with option overwhelm.
Have less to write about, and you’ll likely find more creative solutions. More choice means more for our brains to handle. When we minimize options, we can be more effective, and see more clearly, and our intelligence rises.
Research referenced by The Decision Lab shows that presenting fewer options to people can often lead to more effective decision-making and higher satisfaction levels, a phenomenon known as the "paradox of choice," where too many options can lead to decision paralysis and dissatisfaction with the final selection. This is primarily due to the cognitive overload caused by trying to weigh too many variables against each other.
4. They lean into uncertainty
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An interesting thing happens when we resist the fact that no one knows what will happen next. We try to control our futures where there simply can be none. We wish we knew.
We pre-plan and overanalyze. We tighten up physically and imagine frightening futures that haven’t even happened yet. All this worry blocks brains.
We relax when we accept uncertainty and find a way to be okay with not knowing. When we’re relaxed, our brains work better, and intelligence rises effortlessly.
Savoring, as described by a study published by the American Psychological Association (APA), is “a form of emotion regulation that involves deliberately upregulating positive affect.” In their research, Gregory and colleagues studied how uncertainty affects our capacity for savoring.
Increased savoring has been linked with seeking positive circumstances, choosing to look at the pleasant side of things, taking action to make things more pleasant, re-evaluating how we have interpreted events to find positive aspects, and behaving differently to bring out the best in situations.
5. They get outdoors and move
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There’s a reason why so many past geniuses were keen walkers and exercisers. When we’re sedentary for any considerable length of time, we grow less intelligent
Our bodies are born to move, and when we deny this, our minds gather a surplus of negative thoughts that cloud true insight. When we walk, run, or play, especially outdoors in daylight, where we evolved to be, our intelligence will align with our natural inclinations.
6. They cut our processed food
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The more processed the food you eat, the further removed you are from what your body needs. Processed, in general, equates to a loss of nutrition in service of preservation.
The ideal food for your mind and body is in its most natural (and local) form. It was a mistake to introduce processed food into our diets long ago if the intention was to make people happy.
Our diseased and mentally ill society is a testament to the destructive power of processed stuff. Intelligent brains and minds are housed in bodies that skip junk diets.
Research by the British Heart Foundation showed that eating less processed food can reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, and early death. One study found that eating 10% more ultra-processed foods was associated with a 10% increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease.
7. They're not afraid to make mistakes
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There’s one sure-shot way to guarantee you act in a way that limits you creatively: be scared to fail. You know this is true because there have been moments when you were nervous.
You didn’t want to do a poor job or look foolish. So you held back. You didn’t express yourself fully. You operated like an engine with several blocked valves.
When our worried minds are on things other than the task, we can’t possibly perform as well. Be willing to make mistakes and become present. Intelligence is gifted to those who strike a balance between conscientious effort and looseness.
Making errors is uncomfortable, even though we frequently make them. Especially in educational settings, educators may be reluctant to ask students to guess before learning the correct information, fearing that their incorrect guesses will be confused with true items and harm future learning.
Results from a 2022 PLoS One study showed that retrieval and the presentation of corrective feedback were advantageous tools for learning, even when retrieval was unsuccessful.
Compared to restudy, retrieval promoted learning by perpetuating correct responses and increasing the correction of pragmatic inference errors. In the absence of corrective feedback, retrieval led to a higher proportion of false memories compared to restudying.
Alex Mathers is a writer and coach who helps you build a money-making personal brand with your knowledge and skills while staying mentally resilient.