7 Warning Signs of Fake Intelligence: How to Spot People Who Pretend to Be Smart
Pretended Intelligence: Seven Subtle Signs
Anyone who has been around for a while may have encountered some individuals who pretend to be more intelligent than they really are. The person usually uses big words, is boastful about their knowing, and lowers people’s ideas.
But the truth is, there is more to intelligence than some obvious traits. Let’s have seven subtle signs show when someone is not as intellectually deep as he pretends to be.
 1. Unable to Admit Errors
Self-ignorance is a feature of intelligence: they recognize their areas of ignorance. Only someone who knows something will admit to being wrong or ill-informed. The unsecure prefers to remain in denial and not admit when they are incorrect.
Such behavior is associated with the “Dunning-Kruger effect”:
people who know less think they know more. Whilst wise persons take mistakes as opportunity studies, pretend-to-be shrewd people react to mistakes by denying that there is anything lacking on their part, because mistakes expose their delusion.
 2. More Talking, Less Listening
An active listener is, on the other hand, the quality of intelligent people, who focus on knowing and learning other people. Pseudo-intelligent people, on the contrary, tend to dominate conversations where people like to hear their selves talk instead of meaningfully communicating.
They interrupt others, let people’s contributions go unheard and change the direction of a conversation to where they find themselves at the center.
Studies show that good listening skills are related to emotional intelligence and well-functioning relationships, and fakes of intelligence seem to look for the value of their voice over everybody’s thoughts.
3.Curiosity Lacking Over New Concepts
A true intellect is always marked with a great curiosity and thirst to know more. Intelligent people crave new experiences and delve into new ideas and concepts. Fake-intellectuals, on the other hand rely on a shallow pool of memorized facts and trivia.
They will avoid participating in subjects that might expose their lacunae in knowledge, or places that edify self-identity.
It has been well-noted that intellectual curiosity is related to higher intelligence scores and openness to new experiences, which clarifies that true intellect evolves with new information.
 4. Can’t Explain Simple Things
According to Albert Einstein, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” An informed mind can explain complex ideas in simple terms.
Contrastingly, the self-proclaimed experts overuse technical jargon and complex rhetoric to cover up their ignorant thinking.
Research suggests that the tendency to weigh one’s words overly marks low cognitive ability and insecurity about one’s thoughts.
Conversely, plain talk indicates arrogance and actual understanding of the topic at hand.
 5. Rigid Thought Patterns of Narrow Perspectives
Intelligence is always fluid. A sapient individual can, for example, alter his approach once the new challenge arises. Pretenders to being intelligent are rigid in thinking patterns, becoming defensive when their ruse fails.
Apparently, cognitive flexibility, or the ability of thoughts and behaviors to adapt to changing situations, is highly associated with fluid intelligence. He who lacks such flexibility might soon be stumped if called upon to think on his feet.
6. Rote Knowledge as the Focus
A very large body of facts is impressive, but it is not synonymous with intelligence. Many individuals who have good memories are not intelligent at all.
True intelligence emerges through imaginative connection of concepts and formulation of new insights. Researchers distinguish between crystallized intelligence and fluid intelligence: the former, that is, the ability to recall learned knowledge, the latter, the capacity to analyze novel problems.
It is a better indicator of intellect ability. People who wish to appear smart often rely on memorized items instead of thinking up new things.
 7. Poor People Skills
Emotional intelligence is rapidly coming to be understood as an integral part of overall intelligence, including self-awareness, for example, empathy, and the ability to know and regulate one’s emotions and those of others.
Individuals who want to come across as intelligent often overlook emotional intelligence and are typically seen reading about some obscure, underrated technical know-how. However, research studies reveal that highly emotionally capable individuals perform better in terms of cognitive aptitude and practical skills.
Pretentious claims of superior intellects can be quite useless to them when it comes to relationships and teamwork, for emotional skills can become a much-needed aspect.
 Conclusion
The recognition of these seven signs will help differentiate the true in possession from masquerades. Real intelligence is defined by the following: humility, attention span, curiosity, eloquence, adaptability, creative thinking, and emotional intellect.
It is therefore important to determine these characteristics so as to enable us to critically analyze how deep other people’s minds might be compared to our own or those around us.
