If you’re thinking of really smart people, you probably imagine academic high-achievers, excelling in conventional environments. But it turns out that the stereotype isn’t true. In a series of studies published in the journal Intelligence, the psychologists Scott Barry Kaufman of New York University and Robert Sternberg of Tufts University in Massachusetts found that highly intelligent people have surprisingly unconventional habits. In one part of the study, students and workers recruited online were asked to identify their favorite use of intelligence in their own lives, and describe how they learned it. The results revealed some interesting quirks in the habits of highly intelligent people, which should be celebrated for the light they shed on the nature of intelligence.
For one thing, being messy is a stereotype of some smart people. We’re all supposed to be neat, but some people who are good at original thought value their creativity so highly that they value it more than their manuscripts.
Another surprising habit is swearing. Extremely intellectual individuals — ones who have a large vocabulary — consider cussing to be a way of using words creatively. They are independent thinkers who challenge the status quo about what’s appropriate to say.
Moreover, as many clever people are night owls, preferring the comparative quiet of late at night, one way of avoiding sleep is to continue working then, when everyone else is asleep and near interruptions are rare, and one can give the problem at hand the uninterrupted time it needs to penetrate.
Cold showers, the quintessential pick-me-up, are also favored by geniuses. Reduced to the metaphysical laws of extreme water therapy, cold is consoled in that it’s supposed to improve mood, memorization and productivity.
Moreover, this age group also often talk to themselves. And talking to oneself, whether to enrich the intellect or simply to express oneself, is an activity with which our kind is so familiar that it is sometimes considered as a sign of genius.
Another is self-criticism; driven by humility and a desire for self-improvement, highly intelligent people aren’t afraid to admit their limitations and target areas for growth.
Doodling, in fact, has been found to be a habit of intellectuals: a brain-researched stimulation to problem solving, creativity and memory.
Daydreaming, also understood as distracted fantasizing, is actively embraced and used by very smart people to directly explore and respond to problems, while their imaginations — their ‘daydreaming thoughts’ — access alternative worlds for insight and information. Creative productivity is the key to happiness.
Finally, the need for solitude is characteristic of many high IQ individuals. Devoted to long-term goals and objectives, the superb intelligence tends to eschew socializing in favor of exclusively inward-looking pursuits, reveling in self-sufficient contemplation.
To sum up: the offbeat habits of eggheads show us something important about intelligence when we aren’t just talking shop. Through their embrace of creativity, independence and introspection, our eggheads evade stereotypes, spinning out new ways of thinking and being.