Do people often misunderestimate your level of intelligence?

peter_parker_1
Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:32:41 +0000

People don’t equate intelligence with interpersonal skills at all. In fact it’s usually the opposite. Look at stereotypical nerds like Stever Urkel. And the popular, talkative girl in class is usually perceived as a vapid bimbo, whether or not this is true.

People judge how smart you are based on what you say in class (what you say when you say something, not how often you say something). Or just in casual conversation. They are not listening to how “smooth” you are; when you talk about abstract ideas people can pick up on how intelligent you are sometimes. Sometimes it takes a while to get to know someone before you really know.

But yeah people underestimate my intelligence all the time. But it doesn’t bother me, and I don’t blame them. It’s pretty easy to underestimate intelligence when you’re talking to the most intelligent guy in the room ;P, lol.

One person certainly underestimated me recently. She didn’t know me at all, nor did she know what school I go to. Being from Canada, she quizzed me on a few cultural things that I didn’t know, because I really don’t know much about Canada other than the capital and a few of their “states.” She rolled her eyes (offended because I didn’t know much about her country - lol up yours girl) and told me to “read a book some time” (she was referring to any book, not a book on Canada). I could have easily embarassed her verbally in a variety of ways, because the fact is she didn’t appear too bright (and I, secretly, am, of course). But I was making friends at the time and thought better of it. That and it’s lame trying to prove how intelligent you are.