📅 12 Mar 2025 • 📖 22 min read
— By Dr. Sandip Roy.Some people may seem aloof, forgetful, or lost in their thoughts, making you wonder if they are intellectual outliers.
Can you tell if they have high intelligence without asking them to take an IQ test?
Knowing to see the signs of a high IQ can help you figure out why these people think and act the way they do. It can help you get along better with them, especially if you are in a relationship.
- 95% of people have IQs ranging from 70 to 130
- The exceptionally intelligent people score over 130
- Those who score more than 145 are in the top 1% of intelligent people
Now, take a look at the ten clues that someone is highly intelligent.
10 Signs of High Intelligence
Let’s get this out of the way:
Men are not smarter than women because of their slightly bigger brains.
Brain size is positively linked with intelligence. And men have larger brains than women. But research strongly suggests that a bigger brain does not make men more intelligent.
- Colom & Juan-Espinosa found there is a negligible sex difference in “g” or general intelligence.
- Halpern & team found the IQ scores of men and women do not have major differences.
While men have superior spatial abilities, women have superior social connection abilities.
These are the 10 signs of high intelligence in a person:
1. Highly intelligent people may have trouble having romantic relationships.
A study on over a thousand students in grades 7-12 found that:
- Teenagers with IQs above 100 and below 70 were less likely to have had sexual relationships than those with IQs between 71 and 99.
- Each additional point of IQ increased the odds of being a virgin by 2.7% for males and 1.7% for females.
- This trend continues into college years.
“Higher intelligence was also associated with the postponement of the initiation of the full range of partnered sexual activities.”
— Halpern & Joyner, 2000
A survey by the college magazine ‘Counterpoint’ in 2001 found that while 87% of college students had lost their virginity by age 19, the numbers were lower at elite colleges known for their high-achieving students:
- Harvard: 59% of undergraduates were non-virgins
- Princeton: 56% of undergraduates have had intercourse
- MIT: 51% of undergraduates have had intercourse, and only 65% of graduates were non-virgins
The main reasons highly intelligent people struggle to find love are: They
- tend to overthink and overanalyze
- give high priority to independence and self-sufficiency
- focus on achieving their goals before entering a relationship
- often have poor social skills (especially those in the top 10%)
- set high standards for themselves and their partners, preferring to remain single rather than settle for a less-than-ideal match
However, research by Ali & Ambler found that “The highest IQ group were more likely to be married and more likely to have a larger support network, and have higher levels of social participation.”
To be fair, highly intelligent people may find it exhausting to “dumb down” to be able to talk to potential partners.
Some of the most brilliant among us often find their greatest creativity and satisfaction when alone — and it might be best to leave them alone for the benefit of humanity.
Geniuses like Newton and Feynman had contrasting personalities but shared a deep sense of aloneness.
2. Intelligent people have good pattern recognition and reasoning abilities.
One of the signs of highly intelligent people is their superior ability to recognize patterns. This gives them an edge in the fight for survival.
Finding consistent patterns can help deal with life’s challenges better. Spotting a pattern helps you better predict what might happen next. This lets you plan and prepare for events rather than react to them.
Those who can’t spot irregular patterns can miss threats, such as a snake in the bushes.
- A sudden silence in the environment (is a tiger nearby?).
- A child is having high emotionality of late (are they being abused?).
- A friend is insisting that we visit a certain place alone with them (do they want to harm us?).
The ability to recognize patterns (also known as concept formation) is measured by Wechsler Intelligence tests.
Interestingly, this ability begins to drop fast after the age of 25, when language and memory skills become more important signs of intelligence.
“Intelligence is the ability to learn from experience and to adapt to, shape, and select environments.” — Robert Sternberg, 2012
In our current world, most pattern recognition work has gone to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) mechanisms.
Did you know our immune systems are heavily dependent on pattern recognition?
When a harmful microbe infects us, our bodies start an immune response. This happens because our immune systems have pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) that recognize the irregular molecular structures in these bacteria and viruses, and attack them.
3. Intelligent people can make more precise and credible decisions.
You can’t have all the information you need before you make a decision. So you must rely partly on your intuition.
Highly intelligent people have better intuitions and can predict results better, which makes them superior at decision-making (Thompson & Pennycook, 2018).
Decision-making needs the ability to deduct as well as to predict.
- Deductive ability means skills we learn from our experiences that allow us to read a situation quickly and decide what will work best.
- Predictive ability means skills we learn from our intuitions (“gut feelings”) to help us remember events when a similar situation led by other people yielded certain results.
The more intelligent people are better at both deductive and predictive abilities.
They can quickly analyze the given data and reliably forecast realistic results, leading some to label them as gurus of self-fulfilling prophecies.
“If, before every action, we were to begin by weighing up the consequences, thinking about them in earnest, first the immediate consequences, then the probable, then the possible, then the imaginable ones, we should never move beyond the point where our first thought brought us to a halt.”
— Jose Saramago
Did you know about these 12+ Decision-Making Biases That Can Ruin Your Success?
4. A predictable sign of genius is a high level of creativity.
Geniuses are creative people. Moreover, their creativity is spread across diverse, often unrelated fields.
- Richard Feynman, a Nobel prize-winning physicist who worked on quantum mechanics and superfluidity, regularly played bongo drums.
- Stephen Hawking wrote children’s books.
- Einstein enjoyed sailing.
Creativity is the ability to create something unique, original, or innovative. It requires basic intelligence.
Creativity cannot occur without an ability to problem-solve, brainstorm, incubate ideas for a long period, filter out unnecessary details, and daydream and mind-wander.
“The greatest scientists are artists as well.”
— Albert Einstein
However, keep this in mind. Although creative people are inherently intelligent, not all intelligent people are creative.
So, when we observe creative people, we can deduce they are intelligent. But we can’t really tell whether a person is intelligent or not if we never see them practice any art or other creative activities.
Practicing art is not the same as being creative, but doing any art form can often help us become more creative.
Most creative people also know ways to shut down their conscious minds to let ideas flow more naturally.
5. Intelligent people are highly imaginative and like problem-solving.
One of the signs of extreme intelligence is a highly imaginative mind that seeks problems to solve.
High-IQ people enjoy learning new things and solving puzzles. They are naturally drawn toward adapting to new situations and trying to find solutions to novel challenges.
- Robert Emmons, the best-known gratitude researcher today, loves to solve giant jigsaw puzzles.
- Todd Kashdan, the insubordination researcher, loves to find out the intricacies of body-building.
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the father of the concept of flow, loved to surf oceans.
Surprisingly, intelligent people do not begin by knowing the answer—they value the process of finding the answer.
“Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities.”
— Gloria Steinem
They tend to be genuinely interested in science and technology.
However, they frequently stray from their usual field of study to capture new questions and find their answers. This is helped by their ability to effectively process abstract thinking.
James Gleick, the world-renowned historian of science, says that creative geniuses share a common trait of intense concentration and passion for abstraction. Geniuses like Newton, Feynman, Babbage, Turing, and Byron passionately loved abstraction and intense concentration.
People with high intelligence also love to improvise a lot.
When a problem cannot be solved, they can step back and come back later with new ideas. Their brains can turn off their error checkers and let even “nonsensical” ideas bubble to the surface.
- Psychologists think humans have multiple intelligences.
- The standard intelligence test is the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale.
- Intelligence is the human capacity to think, reason, learn, understand, and solve problems.
People with higher IQs may have learned how to better utilize their brains. Haier and colleagues, 1993, discovered that people with high IQs have less glucose metabolism in most areas of their brains, but more glucose metabolism in specific areas of their brains (which are probably the areas processing the task at hand).
6. High intelligence is linked to high levels of insight and intuition.
More intelligent people are more insightful and more intuitive.
They are more aware of their own mental states and can accurately understand the thoughts and feelings they are having.
Humans tend to think in two ways: quickly and intuitively (System 1), or slowly and deliberately (System 2).
- This study suggests that people who are good at thinking (high-capacity reasoners) can use their intuition, logic, and probability to reason, even when their beliefs conflict with the logic.
- However, those who are not as good at thinking (low-capacity reasoners) tend to rely on their beliefs, even when the logic is clear.
Intuition is mostly an unconscious faculty with varying intensity. As Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, says, “Insight is not a lightbulb that goes off inside our heads. It is a flickering candle.”
Intuition is a lightning-fast hidden brain activity that involves “learned responses that are not the outcomes of deliberate processes” (Hogarth, 2010).
Four things are needed to draw sensible and useful conclusions:
- Logic,
- Analysis,
- Information,
- Intuition.
Now, artificial intelligence (AI) works with the first three but lacks the fourth one — intuition.
And this is where humans shine.
Intelligent humans have better-honed intuitions that help them reach smart and productive conclusions (or at least those that are not “dumb”) most of the time.
The only real valuable thing is intuition. I believe in intuitions and inspirations… I sometimes feel that I am right. I do not know that I am.
— Albert Einstein
Highly intelligent people are great at intuitive powers. They can often find the right and best solutions quickly without being able to explain how they achieved them.
So, we may guess that one of the signs of high intelligence is being good at unconsciously processing environmental signals. This is because they remember learnings from experiences of self and others.
When their insight and intuition fail, intelligent people accept the results with a desire to learn.
A study shows that highly intelligent people learn just as much from their mistakes as they do from their successes. Those with lower intelligence, in comparison, learn mostly from their successes.
7. High-IQ people are curious and open to new experiences.
One of the signs of high intelligence is the presence of high curiosity and willingness to learn new things.
High-IQ people typically ask questions about things they see or hear. When they don’t understand what you’re saying, they ask you to explain it to them in simple words.
These people are curious learners, which makes them more intelligent.
Of the Big 5 personality traits, namely OCEAN (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism), high-IQ people score high on Openness.
The most difficult part of becoming intelligent is not bragging about your knowledge; it is being modest enough to ask questions. If you stay curious, others will see you as intelligent.
The smarter people are naturally inclined to seek experimental and novel experiences. This has a negative fallout too.
When researchers questioned over 8,000 people, they discovered that those with higher IQs were more likely to experiment with illegal drugs.
However, before you rush to Google more on this, know that this study found that search engines lead us to overestimate our own intelligence. So, Googling may make you feel smarter than you actually are.
8. High-IQ people have excellent memory and recall capacity but tend to forget little things.
Some people often forget simple things like birthdays, names, or where they put their car keys.
These “necessary” memory lapses are actually signs of high intelligence.
Research suggests that these people’s brains erase little, irrelevant details to focus on more crucial things and make intelligent decisions.
The researchers say the main goal of our memory is not to transmit information through time but to optimize decision-making.
“It is the interaction between persistence (remembering) and transience (forgetting) that allows for intelligent decision-making in dynamic, noisy environments.” — Blake Richards & Paul Frankland, 2017
High-IQ people have an almost perfect “mnemonic” system of memory.
High-IQ people have an unusual ability to remember faces, facts, and figures. It is mostly because of a system of memory, called “mnemonic persistence,” that lets them easily retrieve stored memories.
It helps them remember events from both remote past and recent times in exquisite detail.
More crucially, it also lets them forget the unhelpful memories.
In the practical use of our intellect, forgetting is as important as remembering.
—William James (The Principles of Psychology)
In comparison, those with brain strokes or dementia mostly retain their remote-past memories, but cannot recall much of anything else. They especially forget things that happened recently (working memory).
Our ability to remember facts, trivia, and experiences from years ago is called declarative memory. A higher ability at declarative function can point out a person’s high intelligence.
They have steep learning curves and are faster and better learners.
This means they can easily retain and recall the exact steps of a process, pick up new skills easily, and apply them efficiently to various situations.
9. High intelligence often comes with certain psychological issues.
Smart people are often outliers and eccentric. Some of the most unkempt and “strange” humans among us are actually geniuses.
- Einstein’s desk was a mess all the time.
- Steve Jobs wore the same color and same design turtlenecks almost his entire life.
Researchers discovered that persons with higher IQs were more prone to try illegal drugs.
Research by Karpinski & Kolb (2017) suggests that Mensa members have a higher risk of developing mental disorders like depression, anxiety, and bipolar.
They also have a higher tendency to have ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and ASD (autism spectrum disorder).
The reason could be that high-intelligence people think more and for longer periods of time. They also tend to overthink and worry.
They are hypervigilant to stressful cues in their environment, overanalyze things, and have high physiological excitability.
“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” — Ernest Hemingway
A study by the London School of Economics found that highly intelligent people are prone to insomnia.
The researchers also discovered that as the average IQ level rises, so does the rate of sleep achieved in hours per night (Why night owls are more intelligent, Kanazawa & Perina, 2009).
Research has observed that some high-intelligence people have high impulsivity (Phillips and Rabbitt, 1995).
Other researchers found that people with high impulsivity and high academic ability tend to have lower grades than those with high academic ability and low impulsivity (Helmers, Young, & Pihl, 1995; Zeidner, 1995).
Impulsive people, by definition, have a lack of planning and make hasty decisions. They find it hard to avoid instant gratification. And often prefer immediate rewards while devaluing future rewards.
One of the high intelligence signs is a tendency to not spend too much time planning meticulously before an activity.
This could be because they rely on their intelligence to find creative, parallel solutions without extensive preparation.
IQ tests should never be used to forecast someone’s life potential. 50% of people overperform on academic achievement tests based on their predicted performance on IQ tests.
— Scott Barry Kaufman
10. High-intelligence people are quite often high achievers.
Is success one of the signs you have a high IQ?
First, it would be wrong to say that all intelligent people are high achievers.
However, almost all exceptional achievers have an intelligence higher than the average population. Success often comes from luck (randomness), timing, smart decisions, opportunities, and intelligence.
As they say, successful people aren’t just lucky, they are successful because they were lucky, and, we may add, intelligent.
Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers picks up how The Beatles and Bill Gates both were exceptionally lucky to have landed opportunities to get where they got.
Some notable Mensa members from Hollywood are Britt Rentschler, Nicole Kidman, Jodie Foster, Geena Davis, Dolph Lundgren, Edward Norton, Quentin Tarantino, Bruce Willis, and James Woods (who is claimed to have an IQ of 180).
The negative aspect of this sign is that they frequently experience “imposter syndrome,” or thoughts of doubt about their ability and deservingness of recognition.
It happens because, possibly, brilliant people always challenge themselves, so they frequently face new and hard situations that they solve and grow out of, which may make them feel like an imposter.
How is artificial intelligence (AI) different from human intelligence?
Some ways that artificial intelligence (AI) differs from human intelligence:
| Feature | Artificial Intelligence (AI) | Human Intelligence |
|---|---|---|
| Based on | Human insights that can be programmed | A natural ability that humans are born with. |
| Can learn from | Past data and experience | Past experiences and the environment |
| Can process and interpret information | From the world around them | From the world around them |
| Can solve problems | Without any rest or breaks | With rest and breaks |
| Can be customized | To perform specific tasks | Not easily customizable |
| Can provide ethical and moral considerations | No | Yes |
| Limited by | Physical and mental capabilities | Physical and mental capabilities |
| Can adapt to new environments | Using a mixture of cognitive procedures | Using a mixture of cognitive procedures |
So, AI is a machine’s ability to analyze data and give solutions based on programming and past data, while human intelligence is a natural ability that humans are born with and can provide ethical and moral considerations in decision-making.
That said, AI may not be too far from growing sentience as of today. Elon Musk predicts Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) by the year 2026.
5 Body Signs of Genius Or High-IQ People
Do certain physical traits hold clues about high intelligence? Let’s explore some fascinating findings that suggest a connection between certain body features and above-average intelligence.
- Bigger Foreheads: People with larger foreheads often excel in mental games and math tests. It may be due to their bigger forebrain—the seat of higher thinking and complex reasoning. Historical records show that many highly intelligent people had larger foreheads.
- Left-handedness: Left-handed people are often more emotionally intelligent, flexible, and sharp. Studies indicate that left-handed people are 3 times more likely to be smart, intelligent, or born geniuses. They also retain memories better, making them quick learners. It’s because they can use both sides of their brain.
- Smaller Belly: Maintaining a fit physique may be linked to intelligence. Researchers have found that higher body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratios (WHR) are associated with lower brain volumes. Belly fat is mostly visceral fat, which can release hormones that cause inflammation and damage to the brain cells (via the gut-brain axis).
- Long Legs: Some studies suggest a connection between tallness and enhanced cognitive abilities. It may be due to better nutrition and physical activities in early childhood, which may boost their brain health and make them smarter in brain-related tasks.
- Blue Eyes: A study suggests that blue-eyed individuals tend to be more studious, strategic, and focused, often outperforming their brown-eyed counterparts in exams.
FAQs
Do IQ and intelligence decrease over a lifetime?
Yes, the average raw IQ score decreases with age over a lifetime, even though the average IQ at older ages stays at 100 (Desjardins & Warnke, 2012).
Fluid intelligence (the ability to think quickly and solve problems easily) starts to drop around the age of 30 to 40.
Crystallized intelligence (knowledge and skills acquired through learning and experience) keeps growing over a lifetime and tends to peak around the age of 60 or 70.
Are high IQ test scores reliable signs of high intelligence?
High scores in IQ tests point to higher intelligence, but not a definite sign of intelligence. Moreover, low scores on IQ tests do not reliably reflect low intelligence.
Taking an IQ test often requires a high level of motivation. A smart person who is unmotivated (maybe due to their age) can receive a low IQ score.
What are the five signs of a highly intelligent person?
Here are five signs of a highly intelligent person:
1. Curiosity: Highly intelligent people are curious to learn about the world around them. They constantly ask questions and seek new information.
2. Open-mindedness: Highly intelligent people are open to new ideas and views. They are willing to challenge their own beliefs and learn from others. They are not afraid to admit when they are wrong.
3. Critical thinking skills: Highly intelligent people can think critically about given information and identify biases. They can evaluate evidence and make sound judgments.
4. Problem-solving skills: Highly intelligent people are good at identifying problems, brainstorming solutions, and implementing the best solution. They can identify the root cause of a problem and develop creative solutions.
5. Creativity: Highly intelligent people are creative. They can come up with new ideas and solutions to problems. They can think outside the box and see things from a different perspective.What is fluid intelligence?
Fluid intelligence is the ability to think quickly and solve problems, even if you have never seen the problem before. It is the kind of intelligence that you use when you are trying to figure out a new puzzle or game. Fluid intelligence is also important for learning new things and adapting to new situations.
Fluid intelligence is often tested using Raven’s Progressive Matrices, which is a test that requires you to look at a series of patterns and figure out the next pattern in the series.
Fluid intelligence is associated with the executive attention brain network, which is the part of the brain that helps us focus and make decisions.Do IQ tests predict academic achievement?
IQ scores predict academic performance to some extent, but it’s not the whole story. Psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman says that IQ tests are not perfect predictors of academic achievement, and nearly 50% of people perform better than what their IQ scores suggest. That shows that doing well in school isn’t just about IQ.
What is emotional intelligence (EQ)?
Daniel Goleman’s book ‘Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ’ popularized the concept of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is about how we handle social situations, get things done, and regulate our emotions. EQ correlates with IQ, but IQ is a better predictor of academic achievement.
What is the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale?
The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale is a test used to measure an adult’s cognitive abilities. It delves into various aspects of intelligence, such as problem-solving, memory, and comprehension. It’s not solely focused on academic knowledge but explores how the brain handles different tasks. Mental health professionals often use this scale to assess an individual’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses.
What is the Flynn effect?
The Flynn Effect is an interesting phenomenon in which IQ scores steadily increase over time. Named after James Flynn, a researcher, it’s a reminder that intelligence isn’t fixed and that many factors can influence how we measure it.
For example, people, on average, would score higher on an IQ test from 50 years ago as compared to one today, suggesting that the world has become smarter today.
Final Words
Did you know that lower-intelligence individuals mostly learn from their successes, but high-intelligence people learn from both their failures and their successes in life?
Three fascinating takeaways:
- Your parents are not as much responsible for your intelligence as you might think. The link between a parent’s IQ and a child’s IQ is just about 10%.
- Genes determine roughly 45-75% of our general intelligence, 60% of our verbal intelligence, and 20% of our performance intelligence (Davies, Tenesa, et al., 2011). There are at least a thousand of these “intelligence genes.”
- Psychologists propose a hierarchy of cognitive abilities, with general intelligence (“g”) at the top. Robert Sternberg’s theory of successful intelligence comprises analytical, creative, and practical intelligences. He addressed practical skills and creativity while considering adaptation to stress. This broadened the concept of intelligence beyond analytical abilities.
Finally, we can increase our intelligence by traveling to unexplored places, learning a new language, and expanding our knowledge. Let’s repeat what we quoted at the start:
Intelligence involves abilities to learn and adapt to changing environment.
— Robert J. Sternberg, Intelligence
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