What Is Other People’s Perception Of You?

Promoting your intelligence can often backfire.

Researchers are checking out how people form first impressions of others’ intelligence and how well it works to try to manage those impressions. They say trying to look intelligent, by using big words, for example, can make people look dumb.

One of the strongest and most accurate signs of intelligence is looking at others when they are speaking to you, says Nora A. Murphy, an associate professor of psychology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Another study showed that people trying to look intelligent had a few behaviors in common. They looked at the speaker while listening or talking, put on a serious face, and they avoided gestures such as touching their hair or face. Just the first two were effective.

The Wall Street Journal’s Sue Shellenbarger says people trying to look intelligent risked showing what they didn’t know. Observers were more accurate in estimating IQs, including lower IQs, of those instructed to act intelligent than in estimating IQs of controls who weren’t given any instructions. Participants trying impression management actually magnified cues signaling low intelligence.

Simple stereotypes can also shape first impressions. Wearing glasses can lead strangers to regard you as more intelligent, according to a study in the Swiss Journal of Psychology. And people who embellish their writing with long, complicated words are seen as less intelligent by readers, according to a study in Applied Cognitive Psychology.

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