What kind of person is a smart person?

Usually, "smart" refers to a person's abstract thinking and analytical abilities that are better than ordinary people, which is commonly known as "high IQ".

Some studies have shown that high IQ does have some identifiable behavioral manifestations.

1. Smart people are generally more humorous

Humor is related to vocal intelligence. A study conducted by the University of New Mexico found that people who make up their own jokes and humorous jokes and have funnier comic narrations score higher on verbal intelligence tests. Although smart people are not necessarily humorous, humorous people may be smarter.

If you want to look smarter, maybe try using humor. However, not every style of humor is beneficial. Another experiment from the University of New Mexico looked at how comedians' humor styles correlate with intelligence. Research shows that comedians who score high on intelligence tests rarely use self-defeating humor, which is making themselves the butt of the joke. This is a psychological defense mechanism used to hide negative emotions about themselves, and Attacks on others. Using harmful humor on yourself to please others in order to gain their approval.

So the humor of smart people is often kind to themselves. For example, comedians make good use of affiliate humor (Affiliative humor), tell jokes in a kind and self-accepting state, and share things you think are funny from the heart. Or use self-enhancing humor to poke fun at yourself and your surroundings in a constructive, harmless way. This kind of humor can help us magnify the good aspects of difficult situations and maintain a positive attitude.

2. Smart people have a more positive attitude towards new things

Openness is a type of personality, including active imagination (fantasy), aesthetic sensitivity, and inner awareness. Emotional concerns, preference for variety, and intellectual curiosity. In other words, people with high openness also have a more positive attitude towards new things and challenges.

If you have people with high openness around you, maybe they have higher IQs. Because openness is related to two intelligence factors at the same time: fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. They are all the ability to understand language and deduct and summarize texts (McGrew, 2005). The difference is that fluid intelligence is based on physiology and will decline with age; crystallized intelligence continues to develop throughout a person's life. Although it enters a plateau at the age of 25, it can still be improved to a certain extent. Research shows that people with high openness perform better on tests of both fluid and crystallized intelligence (Gignac, Stough, & Loukomitis, 2004). In other words, people who have a more positive attitude towards new things may have an advantage in both innate IQ and acquired intellectual development.

In addition, people with higher openness also have higher learning ability, which is also a manifestation of high IQ. Curious minds make them more likely to be interested in new things. Interest is the intrinsic motivation for learning. It helps people use some strategies and techniques in the learning process to achieve higher efficiency. For example, when reading an article, people who are interested in the content not only read the meaning of the text, but also use associations to integrate new knowledge into their original knowledge system.

3. Smart people know better about delayed gratification

Smart people seem to know self-discipline, and they have a strong ability to delay gratification. Be good at resisting immediate temptations and focusing on long-term goals. Because the brain areas responsible for activation of self-control and logical analysis overlap.

In an experiment at Yale University (Noah A. Shamosh, 2008), researchers used fMRI to measure the brain activity of 103 subjects. The subjects completed a financial reward test: received $10 to $200 in the short term, or $2,000 to $40,000 in delayed payments? At the same time, in each set of choices, the final amount received is inversely proportional to the delay time. That is to say, if you choose to get the money later, you may get more money.

At the same time, the subjects also completed additional short-term memory tasks related to intelligence.

The researchers found that the prefrontal cortex area of ??the brain was active in both tests and was the only area that showed a correlation. Among them, participants with more active prefrontal cortexes obtained higher scores on intelligence tests and also chose to delay receiving rewards in financial reward tests.

The prefrontal cortex of the human brain is responsible for integrating and analyzing various information, and logical analysis ability is a very important manifestation of IQ. In addition, people with strong integration skills are more likely to make an accurate analysis of the overall situation and choose to control themselves for long-term goals and not accept immediate benefits. Therefore, people with high IQs have strong self-control and the ability to delay gratification.

Of course, being smart does not mean a better life, and IQ does not mean wisdom in dealing with life. Although many smart people can quickly generate opinions, they are easily overconfident in their own judgments and ignore other objective information.

The wisest people are actually those who admit that they know nothing. The ability to objectively recognize your own limitations is more important than a high IQ.