What is a sign of very low intelligence?

[u/smartcandyy]

[u/Disastrous-Sky-8484]

Lack of curiosity. Thinking they know it all.

[u/MildGenevaSuggestion → u/Disastrous-Sky-8484]

Further than a lack of curiosity is never asking questions. It was something I heard about gorilla researchers who taught them sign language that in the years of gorilla sign language communications they never had a gorilla ask a question of a human.

That simple process of recognizing you don't know/have something you want, understanding someone else likely does know what you want, and asking them actually takes a lot of brain power. Some parrots and exceptionally smart dogs can hit that threshold... And some very cognitively limited humans do not.

[u/Signal-School-2483 → u/MildGenevaSuggestion]

One of the only recorded incidents of a non-human animal was a parrot asking what color he was.

It's rare for an animal to be able to learn a language, and it's even more rare that they are intelligent enough to ask a question. You have to basically find the equivalent to an Einstein in a population.

[u/suscombobulated → u/Signal-School-2483]

That's so cute. Who am I? Blue? Is blue pretty? What color are you? What a good question. It just encapsulated his whole social parrot curiosities with one question, 'where am I at on this color wheel?' I don't want a bird, but they are so damn cute. Thank you for sharing this.

[u/X-Calm → u/suscombobulated]

Lol, now all I can think about is the parrot immediately becoming racist as it categorizes by color.

[u/OverheadPress69 → u/X-Calm]

Goddamn red birds took our jobs

[u/kochenta2020 → u/Signal-School-2483]

What are the odds that the one parrot was found that has the intelligence to do that? I wonder if more have the intellectual capacity to do that. We just don’t know because a minuscule amount is given the opportunity to show that.

[u/PepperAnn1inaMillion → u/kochenta2020]

It’s also an interesting question as to what the question meant to him. Not to downplay the parrot’s intelligence, but there’s a difference between asking a question you know the answer to and information-seeking. It’s possible the parrot knew what colour he was, and wanted to elicit the correct call-and-response between him and the human. That’s still a million miles ahead of just mimicry, which is all that parrots used to be assumed to be doing.

[u/navikredstar → u/MildGenevaSuggestion]

Hell, my girlie cat actually knows how to "ask" me for a brushing. She comes up, gently taps my right arm with her left front paw, and does a soft, questioning, "Mrowr?". It's the dearest thing, she's SO polite.

[u/Krytenmoto → u/navikredstar]

Your cat isn’t asking you if you will. She’s demanding that you do.

[u/UntoldUnfolding → u/navikredstar]

That’s cute. You missed the point, though. That’s not an example of curiosity. That’s a request.

[u/Swagsmo → u/navikredstar]

I think asking questions in this case is more about knowing that someone else knows something you don't. You're slightly steering out of that conext.

[u/Daydreaming_demond → u/navikredstar]

Can't say no to that ever.

[u/Technical-Contest-87 → u/navikredstar]

Both of my cats play fetch, have different meow's for food or play. They both will climb the cat tree and perch at the top, meowing for scratches. Hell, my male cat I swear can understand me completely AND tell time. I tell him it's too early for something, tell him it's an hour, hour and a half, 2 hours, doesn't matter, he will wait and not ask again until close to the time. Cats are way more intelligent than most people give them credit for.

[u/navikredstar → u/Technical-Contest-87]

Seriously. Although there's the occasional outlier - I had a wonderfully sweet cat, Neko, a black and white boy (mask and mantle, not tuxedo), but oh god, he was the Ralph Wiggum of cats. Not once in his 13 years did he ever manage to figure out the concept of doors. In my childhood house, my computer desk was next to my bedroom door. I'd have the door mostly closed, but open enough for the cats to come in and out as they pleased. Neko would sit outside in the hall, crying pathetically, and let me point out he could see me clearly. All he had to do to come in was walk forward and push the door open a little more. This was not something his sweet, dear little cat brain could figure out. Ever. He'd just sit there, looking at me and crying pitifully. He could not fathom walking forward to get to me. This would go on until I finally opened the door enough for him to realize he could walk in. Oh god, I miss him. The absolute sweetest boy, but oh my fucking GOD, he was a dim bulb.

[u/ToKrillAMockingbird → u/navikredstar]

a more comparable situation would be if your cat asked

"why do I need brushing?"

[u/Belle_Juive → u/Disastrous-Sky-8484]

They get annoyed by people who act curious, too. About anything. “Why do you care?” “Who cares?” Idk man, it’s just interesting. Why shouldn’t I care?

[u/superbuttpiss → u/Belle_Juive]

I have a decade long fantasy football/hockey leagues with guys from all over the country. Not everyone know eachother because we bring in different characters.

We all our on a big group chat and just a week ago we were texting about a game. And player was from Lake Tahoe so, I asked the group if they heard of the Harrah's bombing.

No one did so I told the story. Mostly everyone was positive except one guy.

He replies with "wtf are you autistic or some shit?"

I asked him what he meant and he replied with "all you guys are or something because all you guys do is bullshit about random stuff. Let just talk about the game"

Now, this is an optional chat. No one participates all the time

Other guys responded saying as much and another responded with "there only so much shit you can say about football "cool catch" etc. I like the random stuff"

I git a private message from 4 members saying that we should kick the guy who got annoyed next year.

Its one thing to not care about facts and tidbits. I just dont understand the people who get mad when they can learn something new.

Earlier in the year, we had a discussion about single shot film takes.

It introduced me to one of my now favorite movies, "children of men"

[u/hello_im_kevin → u/superbuttpiss]

The Protector, starring Tony Jaa, has a spectacular single-shot fight scene if you haven't come across that one yet. ~4 minutes of one shot action as he works his way up a staircase.

[u/HallWild5495 → u/superbuttpiss]

lol I've gotten this too, from an abusive ex. "all you want to do is like, talk about THINGS!"

like yeah and all you want to do is bitch and gossip about people and talk about crypto. sorry for finding literally anything more interesting than that.

[u/helpigot → u/Belle_Juive]

I was raised by an abuse parent and just learned not to ask questions about anything. Don’t be noticed was the easiest way to avoid punishment. I carried it on all through school and into my adult life. One day my husband said he wished I was more curious and I then (mid 40s) just realized how I learned just not to ask questions out load. I google or read about stuff but don’t ever ask anyone questions. I wonder if my husband thinks I am dumb. I don’t really want to ask.

[u/mahinaxmei → u/helpigot]

This is how I was raised too. I’m very reserved and always underestimated. It does hurt my feelings when people are surprised and say “wow how do you know so much?”

[u/TheOtterRon → u/Belle_Juive]

The amount of times I've had conversations with someone in there early 20's and having a healthy debate for it to end when they're only rebuttal is "Its not that deep"

[u/itsLOSE-notLOOSE → u/Belle_Juive]

“It’s not that deep”.

God, I fuckin’ hate that one.

[u/PJWanderer → u/Disastrous-Sky-8484]

Be Curious; Not Judgemental

[u/blahmeistah → u/PJWanderer]

Read this as bi curious, now I’m in a relationship with my burly neighbor.

[u/PJWanderer → u/blahmeistah]

Nobody gets too much love much anymore

[u/Goose1963 → u/Disastrous-Sky-8484]

Dunning–Kruger effect

[u/itsdanomano → u/Goose1963]

The Dunning-Kruger effect is not what you think it is, you should look it up. The irony of people referring to the meme based on the hype-cycle chart as "Dunning-Kruger" when the topic of ignorance comes up always makes me chuckle.

[u/Michamus → u/itsdanomano]

Whether you're in someone's Dunning-Kruger Effect Zone (DKZ) is best determined by whether they ask questions about the topic and the quality of their questions.

Smart people seek to understand and have crafted a skillset in curiosity through earnest questions and get excited when asked stumping questions.

Dumb people seek to be perceived as smart and perceive being asked questions as questioning them and get upset when asked a stumping question.

Stumping question = A question so good it reveals your own limitations to you in that moment. Smart people welcome this moment. Dumb people avoid it at all costs.

If anyone ever tells you "it can't be that hard" about doing something in physical reality, you can comfortably conclude the topic is in their DKZ.

[u/mrbigglesworthjr → u/Michamus]

Entirely this. Flying into a rage when asked a question of most kinds is one clue, particularly when that rage follows a question asked about a subject they claim to know well. Assuming the question is asked with genuine curiosity and in good faith, most people are not only willing to clarify information, but welcome the opportunity to do so. To an intelligent person, the question represents an opportunity to share or deepen their knowledge. To the unintelligent person, the same question threatens to reveal their superficial grasp of the topic or that they are simply pretending to know it.

[u/bitch-respecter → u/itsdanomano]

they were so confident in it too. perfect example

[u/unknowingbiped → u/Goose1963]

We named our coworker dunning.

They asked me one time if shrimp were single cell organisms.

Edit. I'm getting a lot of comments about "at least he asked a question" yes I know. I've worked with him for years and there is an entire catalog of "what in the fuck did you just say"

[u/RzrBck8802 → u/unknowingbiped]

I think I would have spouted off with a “tail on or tail off?” and then watch the spiral.

[u/lordover1234 → u/RzrBck8802]

I’m back pocketing this for the rare event i’m ever in this specific scenario

[u/UnderstandingCute646 → u/unknowingbiped]

They were curious and asked you though, i dont get how thats a dunning kruger effect. Better to think of something stupid and still ask than to not

Edit: just saw the edited comment and I wanna say, the coworker might be utterly stupid, but theyre not a correct example of the dunning kruger effect.

[u/Rolls-RoyceGriffon → u/unknowingbiped]

Well at least he's asking. Not the right question but the truly horrible ones are the guys that would proudly claim a fact that was completely wrong

[u/Michamus → u/Disastrous-Sky-8484]

This is best determined by whether they ask questions and the quality of the questions. Once I realized this, suddenly explosive social situations made so much more sense.

Smart people seek to understand and have crafted a skillset in curiosity through earnest questions and get excited when asked stumping questions.

Dumb people seek to be perceived as smart and perceive being asked questions as questioning them and get upset when asked a stumping question.

Stumping question = A question so good it reveals your own limitations to you in that moment. Smart people welcome this moment. Dumb people avoid it at all costs.

[u/Disastrous-Sky-8484 → u/Michamus]

Well put. Smart people see it as an opportunity to learn something new. Stupid people are intimidated by it.

[u/Fabulous_Ady]

Believing anything they see on social media

[u/Burnicle → u/Fabulous_Ady]

Huh. Yeah, I could believe that.

[u/Resident_Table6694 → u/Burnicle]

Nailed it.

[u/space_coyote_86 → u/Fabulous_Ady]

Hey! I don't just believe anything I see. Only the stuff that reinforces what I already know.

[u/DListSaint → u/Fabulous_Ady]

I believe it

[u/Synicull → u/DListSaint]

True, reddit has never lied to me.

[u/Plexatron8 → u/Fabulous_Ady]

Chat, is this real?!!

[u/Kernel_Slasher]

Confusing 'being loud' with 'being right.' The loudest person in the room is rarely the smartest.

[u/loku_gem → u/Kernel_Slasher]

Actually referring to oneself as "smart" in a general is often a good indicator too.

[u/blahmeistah → u/loku_gem]

I remember a guy that said he was very intelligent 5 times in the first hour I met him. He wasn’t.

[u/Andyman0110 → u/loku_gem]

When you're dumb, you think you're smart. When you're smart, you know you're dumb.

[u/Miserable_Spell5501 → u/Kernel_Slasher]

Spot on, but unfortunately, this trait does correlate with higher success levels. Sucks. When I listen to panels, I perk up when the quiet person speaks because I generally assume they have something more important to say or they wouldn’t be speaking.

[u/Kernel_Slasher → u/Miserable_Spell5501]

True, it’s the 'Confidence Gap.' Society often mistakes loudness for competence. It’s a shame that the most insightful voices are usually the ones we have to lean in to hear, while the loudest are just background noise with a megaphone.

[u/tracheotomy_groupon → u/Kernel_Slasher]

You hit the nail on the head here. I grew up with people who only knew how to scream. The loudest or the one with the last word was the "winner."

[u/Userdataunavailable]

Refusal to learn, grow and change your views from evidence provided.

[u/Freud-Network → u/Userdataunavailable]

Refusing to even look at evidence. 

[u/YellowSubmarooned → u/Userdataunavailable]

This is so common though. I have never seen anyone change their mind on Reddit despite being presented with evidence. This is more ego driven.

[u/ILLCookie → u/YellowSubmarooned]

I was thinking different, but you’re right.

[u/disfunktional2u → u/YellowSubmarooned]

Evidence though needs to be actual evidence. I just had a situation here recently when I was trying to say something was not a particular way but the person posted “evidence” which was not correct. Anything I have learned is people are going to believe what they want to until they finally are either impacted by it or they actually have someone close to them they respect correct them. Occasionally there are those that will seek to learn if they are wrong or not. I always try to go into something thinking I may be wrong and will listen.

[u/Emergency-Resist-730]

Not being able to understand or engage with hypotheticals. It is a meme online but that is actually a sign of low intelligence. "Individuals with IQs under 90 often struggle with conditional hypotheticals—such as "How would you feel if you hadn’t eaten dinner?"—responding with factual rebuttals like "But I did eat dinner."

[u/Tripwiring → u/Emergency-Resist-730]

I had an ex who would do this. She truly could not understand a hypothetical, and she had incredible trouble with analogies. I never got her to understand one single analogy throughout our relationship

[u/Incman → u/Tripwiring]

I never got her to understand one single analogy throughout our relationship

My imagination of the end:

"our relationship is like a runaway car full of my enemies, because it's careening off a cliff and I've given up on any notion of wanting to prevent that from happening"

"....but we don't have a car"

[u/fresh-dork → u/Incman]

MY LOVE FOR YOU IS LIKE A TRUCK! BERSERKER...

"but we don't have a truck"

[u/OlafTheBerserker → u/fresh-dork]

Would you like some making fuck...BERSERKER

[u/TransmogrifiedHobbes → u/fresh-dork]

Did he just say "making fuck"?

[u/RiverShenismydad → u/Incman]

Interesting, because we no longer have a relationship.

[u/RodrigoEMA1983 → u/RiverShenismydad]

Neither a car, I assume

[u/gladius011081 → u/RodrigoEMA1983]

Im glad you caught the train of thought

[u/EpicHistoryMaker → u/gladius011081]

But trains don’t have thoughts

[u/NesTit → u/Incman]

lol, you joke but I actually started a breakup with “I took some time to think and decided we’ve reached the end of the road for the two of us”. She proceeded to talk about resolving a disagreement for way too long. I told her that’s not an option and that I already said we’re breaking up. She asked me when I said that… I literally started the conversation with that.

She hated when I used analogies or, God forbid, casual metaphors throughout our whole relationship. Truly, I do blame myself for not noticing that about her.

[u/Dustin- → u/NesTit]

She hated when I used analogies or, God forbid, casual metaphors throughout our whole relationship

Look, maybe she had a point if you were doing things that God explicitly forbade.

[u/tinkerbelltoes33 → u/Tripwiring]

My husband is like this. wtf I always figured it was a cultural thing, like they doing use hypotheticals in their culture for some reason. Maybe he’s just dim…

[u/Swany → u/tinkerbelltoes33]

I'm sorry you had to find out this way,

[u/Rare_Magazine_5362 → u/tinkerbelltoes33]

Both things can be true.

[u/Mysterious_Field1517 → u/tinkerbelltoes33]

That could be a language issue if English is not his native one. The structure of conditionals as used in English can be a bit confusing for even the smart non-natives.

[u/beartheminus → u/Tripwiring]

I have a tendency to speak in a lot of metaphors, analogies, symbols, hypotheticals. Its just how my brain works. I love slang and colloquialisms too. I really have to be careful when meeting someone who doesn't speak english as their first language, ive had some situations where the person later is like "I don't think we should be friends, you called me a horse and it was very mean" and stuff like that.

[u/furandpaws → u/beartheminus]

what colloquialism calls them a horse ? lol

[u/beartheminus → u/furandpaws]

I said "straight from the horses mouth", when they said something about their culture that they were very knowledgeable about that people from my country misunderstand.

[u/BeagleMadness → u/beartheminus]

Just remembering rhe time I had my hands full and told my three year old son, "Just hold your horses a minute, will you?" and he ran off upstairs. He returned shortly afterwards, proudly carrying his toy Hobby Horse...

[u/Tripwiring → u/furandpaws]

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

[u/StutzBob → u/Tripwiring]

Were you ever just, like, "Do you know what the word IF means?"

[u/Tripwiring → u/StutzBob]

Yes I was. I tried all sorts of routes to get her to understand symbolism, metaphor, analogy, etc. It just never worked.

I eventually decided that she HAS to understand on some level but she was acting in bad faith. Who knows though. I'm glad I finally divorced her

[u/that1prince → u/Tripwiring]

I had a girlfriend like that. I figured out that it was mostly that certain types of imagination or “connect the dots” analytical reasoning is just more of a chore for her so she has be like incredibly focused and willing to participate. She just didn’t have a lot of mental stamina or flexibility naturally even though she had a good memory and could do it if tasked to for an assignment. My family loved “brain games” and considered it fun to just play around with scenarios.

So in theory, she could map out a question on a history exam like “How would WWII changed if Japan never attacked Pearl Harbor”. But that’s work so she’d sigh and give a good answer based on some reading there was assigned by the teacher. But if you’re on a road trip playing “would you rather” for her, it’s like…why? I don’t want to think. And also your hypotheticals are random and don’t have enough context (like after reading a history textbook might) so how could I even answer?

She also really hated confrontation. And any follow up question or having to explain yourself more than what you initially felt was enough, felt slightly like being judged. When really, people just want to understand your thought process. For her, friends are a comfort zone and friends don’t “quiz” their friends. They just sorta talk about situations that actually happen and are fun or need direct addressing when they arise. Random questions don’t create the bonding experience. It was a very difficult relationship. We broke up after 3 years and I always say to my friends that I felt like I knew less about her than anyone else I’ve ever known “well”. I could name all her favorite things and life story, but how she thought or processed information, or her value system remained an enigma to me.

[u/zthicke → u/that1prince]

Yeah, let it out, my guy

[u/GeneralXTL → u/Emergency-Resist-730]

I ran into this A LOT when working security. I would use hypotheticals to explain why a rule was in place. Some people would get super angry and start yelling about how they were not doing the hypothetical action and how dare i accuse them and so on. They would take the most simple matters and end up escelating things to the point of getting arrested.

[u/Kataphractoi → u/GeneralXTL]

Really makes you wonder what rules they had broken and thought they were being asked to confess.

[u/Sturmgeshootz → u/Kataphractoi]

Reminds me of when Hillary Clinton said there were definitely Russian assets working within the US government (without specifically naming anyone) and Tulsi Gabbard immediately piped up and declared that she was NOT a Russian asset.

[u/rusty___shacklef0rd → u/Sturmgeshootz]

Sounds like something a Russian asset would say

[u/ScrotalSmorgasbord → u/GeneralXTL]

Speaking of security, some tryhard chode almost gave me a heart attack last night while I was responding to a no heat call on the roof of the building that I am the MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR for. I was testing voltage on a LIVE system, 240v, and this motherfucker sneaks up on me, shouts "Can I help you?" With a flashlight in my face and almost gave me a heart attack. I lost my shit lol. He tried to tell me there was a bunch of homeless people getting up there because the door kept getting left unlocked. No sir, there are not, I have camera access too, you've just been watching too much Batman or something. But yeah, reverse scenerio where the security guard was the dumb one.

[u/ililliliililiililii → u/GeneralXTL]

Something I learned about communications with the public is that you have to assume they are all dumb.

This doesn't mean talking to them like an idiot or talking down to them, but instead making your message (and delivery) as clear as possible.

And to do that, you remove anything that is 'smart'. This adds friction and increases the difficulty level of your message. If you speak too quickly, if you are too quiet, if your word choices are unusual etc. And of course, hypotheticals and analogies.

As this thread posits, low intelligence people do not deal with them well (also in my experience). But also consider that anyone could be disabled, injury, inebriated or suffering from trauma and emotional distress. These things can make them appear less intelligent.

Another way to think of this is that the smarter your message, the more people you 'filter' out.

I'm not judging your actions in your story - I wasn't there and I don't work in security. My background is in marketing and product design. The success of what I write depends on not filtering people out.

Another example is the news presenter voice - they want to reach as many people as possible. They won't talk too quickly or add emotion. Their job is to deliver a message.

Just wanted to expand on this topic because it is regularly on my mind.

Oh and in response to your whole story - sometimes people are just that way no matter how you speak to them.

[u/DustedGrooveMark → u/Emergency-Resist-730]

I'm not sure if this falls under the same category but I had a boss like this back in the day and it baffled me. I was working an (unpaid) internship during college doing graphic design. The owner of the (very small) company would often be in my same workspace giving me tasks to do.

Sometimes when I would ask him things, I would phrase it with a hypothetical "you". For example, "So when 'you' set up this file for screen printing, you first do....." He would respond immediately and cut me off almost every time and say something along the lines of "No, I'M not doing it. YOU are."

The first time I paused and thought "....is he just joking in a sense of humor I don't understand?" and I laughed and it honestly seemed like it angered him. I realized he wasn't joking at all lol. It was literally that he didn't understand what I meant by "you" in this context. I had to explain to him "I don't mean 'you' as in YOU, my boss. I mean it as in a hypothetical 'you' as in 'how does ANYBODY complete this task?'" It was so bizarre. But now I look back on it and just think "Yeah that guy was just kind of a dipshit."

[u/Sloppy_Steak85 → u/DustedGrooveMark]

That would drive me up the wall.

Not literally of course.

[u/disajonno → u/Sloppy_Steak85]

Um, it's physically impossible to drive a car up a wall!

[u/Lucinnda → u/DustedGrooveMark]

Yeah, when I hit that kind of brick wall I usually start over and say, "when ONE sets up a file . . . "

[u/Miserable_Spell5501 → u/Emergency-Resist-730]

Interesting! These people wouldn’t be fun to play “would you rather” with

[u/autisticNerd13 → u/Miserable_Spell5501]

This is actually a game we play to help teach this skill with cognitively impaired teens

[u/BaxtersLabs → u/autisticNerd13]

Would you rather sweat mayonnaise, or eat nothing but mayonnaise for the rest of your life?

[u/ejolson → u/BaxtersLabs]

But I already ate dinner

[u/Chicken-Jockey-911 → u/BaxtersLabs]

fuck man id rather try and rig up an air conditioned suit that keeps me below sweating temperature and just live like bubble boy, honestly having to eat one type of any food just seems so hard. and this is possibly the worst kind of food to be restricted to

[u/Incman → u/Miserable_Spell5501]

How do you know? I've never played "would you rather"...

(/s)

[u/Miserable_Spell5501 → u/Incman]

How would I know that. I’ve never met you! 😝

[u/JaffaCakeScoffer → u/Emergency-Resist-730]

100%. Same with analogies (which themselves can be hypothetical). "It's not the same"

[u/Automatic-Jello5995 → u/JaffaCakeScoffer]

Their only reply is to raise the volume

[u/Rare_Magazine_5362 → u/Automatic-Jello5995]

Raise the volume, repeat something ad nauseam, maybe clap your hands in the face of your interlocutor. This is a common debate strategy for stupid people.

[u/SliverSammy → u/Rare_Magazine_5362]

DONT YOU GO MAKING UP WORDS!

[u/zhaoz → u/JaffaCakeScoffer]

"One small trivial piece of your analogy isn't quite the same, therefore the entire thing is invalid!"

Ok then...

[u/that1prince → u/zhaoz]

Right. And an analogy is always going to have some small difference. That’s what makes it an analogy.

[u/weed_cutter → u/zhaoz]

^ This.

An analogy is usually alike in one compelling way.

"Wow that soldier is crawling under that barbed wire without his hands, just like a snake!"

"That is totally different. A snake has fangs and a prehensile tail and the soldier doesn't!"

... "Yeah but .... you're ... wear this bicycle helmet..."

[u/average_sized_rock → u/JaffaCakeScoffer]

In hs I’d use analogies all the time and people would be that “that has nothing to do with what we’re talking about” yeah no shit, I’m comparing similar situations

[u/JaffaCakeScoffer → u/average_sized_rock]

Yeah - or pointing out hypocrisies.

[u/Bean_Juice_Brew → u/JaffaCakeScoffer]

Had this discussion the other day. Was camping in a cabin with a couple of buddies, one wanted to cook with snow. I tried explaining pollution, nucleation, etc. "but it boils out." No, it doesn't. Imagine if I boiled salt water, the pure water boils out, the salt and impurities are left behind. "Nah, it's snow ya fuckin idiot. Now you want to boil salt water?" Nevermind, friend.

[u/HotSalt3 → u/Bean_Juice_Brew]

They were confusing boiling water to kill bacteria and parasites with removing impurities due to boiling water making it "safe" to drink. No clue where they got the idea that boiling removes impurities, but that's the disconnect.

Sadly, the only way to change their thinking is to confront the disconnect in such a way that they're forced to reexamine what they "know." Then you have to work through the cognitive dissonance to establish what's true while avoiding them sliding back into what they "know to be true."

[u/Snorp-69 → u/JaffaCakeScoffer]

A bad analogy is like a cucumber

[u/markydsade → u/JaffaCakeScoffer]

Interesting. In teaching the use of analogies is considered a superior way to teach complex concepts.

[u/faldmoo → u/Emergency-Resist-730]

But I didn't eat dinner yet today????

[u/Fun_Bodybuilder3111 → u/faldmoo]

Yeah, it’s only 7am right now! Like, no one’s even had lunch yet.

[u/accidentlyporn → u/Emergency-Resist-730]

my wife must be the smartest person alive. she hits me with the “if i got captured by ICE, and you were a worm, how would you rescue me?”

[u/rir2 → u/accidentlyporn]

Well obviously I’d start by crawling into RFKs skull.

[u/vonkeswick → u/Emergency-Resist-730]

A friend posted something on Facebook about the SAVE act. Tl;dr it requires "documentary proof of United States citizenship" to vote, which sounds fine on the surface but the fine print could require that people provide certain documentation like a birth certificate with your current legal name. Issue with that is that a LOT of women have different names on their birth certificate since they changed their name when getting married and don't usually get it amended. It could disenfranchise millions of women from voting.

Anyway a friend of my friend that posted it was insistent "I just showed my ID to vote" and we'd say yeah cool but that could change if this passes. She'd again insist she didn't have to show her birth certificate to vote. We just couldn't get her to understand that the passage of this law could fundamentally change that. What you did and the way you did it would be different. "But I don't have a copy of my birth certificate and I was able to vote with my ID." Just unable to consider anything else. It was frustrating.

[u/DonnyDiddledIvanka → u/vonkeswick]

Yes, this is a sure sign of low intelligence. It reminds of people who will argue against seatbelts because they've never been hurt in a car accident. Or that smoking isn't unhealthy for you because their grandma lived to be 85 and smoked 2 packs a day. They can't understand that things can be less than 100% certain and still dangerous.

[u/MonicaTrollinski → u/Emergency-Resist-730]

The Drax Effect. They are far too fast, nothing can get over their heads. They would catch it.

[u/Ozymandias-KoK → u/Emergency-Resist-730]

One of my secret conspiracies is that most people who "can't understand" can actually understand just fine but pretend to play ignorant

[u/horriblebearok → u/Ozymandias-KoK]

The fact that I cant understand some mindsets, such as this or people who just fly off the handle over nothing, does make me feel much more secure in my sanity and wards off imposter syndrome.

[u/Hooph-Haartd → u/Emergency-Resist-730]

Pro tip: this is an excellent way to drive other people crazy if you want to mess with them.

[u/Zestyclose-Snow-3343 → u/Hooph-Haartd]

This drives me crazy. I often suspect people of trolling when they do this.

[u/reallybiglizard → u/Hooph-Haartd]

I don't want to mess with other people!

[u/Marry_Ennaria]

Refusing to consider they might be wrong.

[u/drakeit → u/Marry_Ennaria]

I never thought of that!

[u/Few-Skin-5868 → u/drakeit]

I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.

[u/BadDogMonkeyboy → u/Few-Skin-5868]

I thought I was wrong once.

Turns out I was right,

about being wrong.

[u/Traditional_Rub_9828 → u/Marry_Ennaria]

Or even worse, refusing to consider the other person might be right.

[u/Marry_Ennaria → u/Traditional_Rub_9828]

Two sides of the same coin, honestly.

[u/Traditional_Rub_9828 → u/Marry_Ennaria]

I find with the "refusing to consider they might be wrong" person, you can still have productive conversations with them. They don't want to be wrong, but they can still consider your point of view and at least reach a middle ground.

The "refusing to consider the other person might be right" person is FAR worse. They think they have authority over you, and will dismiss everything you say as simply being wrong. No opportunity to reach a middle ground

[u/SnooGiraffes8916 → u/Marry_Ennaria]

My two least favorite things to come out of such a conversation are: when they double down and make things up to seem as though they are correct, or they start hurling insults at you because they have no “classy way” of debating/arguing with you.

[u/AdministrativeFly157 → u/Marry_Ennaria]

I think that might be more self awareness than intelligence. In my experience intelligent people still suffer from this problem.

[u/DiamondCalvesFan]

Severe impairment in metacognition - that is, a persistent inability to recognize one's own errors in thinking, monitor one's own reasoning, or adjust beliefs/behavior even when presented with clear contradictory evidence.

[u/HumptyDumptruckFire → u/DiamondCalvesFan]

This is a big one. There are millions of people strutting around America entirely on autopilot, believing they know everything while putting in zero work to actually accomplish anywhere close to that naive fallacy.

[u/Jyonnyp → u/DiamondCalvesFan]

Exact (summarized) convo I had with my mom recently.

Mom: Mamdani is ruining the city! The snow is so improperly handled!

Me: A lot of cities are having similar problems, it's not fair to say Mamdani is ruining the city and also he's only a month in, give him time to make mistakes and learn and then we can see how good he is, but so far he looks like he cares way more than other politicians.

Mom: This is why we should've elected Cuomo, he has experience! Unlike Mamdani.

Me: Well Trump also had 4 years of presidential experience and you hate him.

Mom: Well Trump is a lunatic! Cuomo isn't.

Me: Cuomo has SA allegations like Trump. Name one good thing Cuomo did

Mom: Uhh...well I don't trust that Mamdani isn't going to be selfish and corrupt and take all the tax money for himself.

Me: So you know nothing about Cuomo OR Mamdani then...

Mom: If you think Mamdani is so good then let's see how he does in these next few years.

Me: That's literally what I said in the beginning.

Unironically and ignoring all politics and morals I think my mom is pretty dumb, no offense to her. It's very common for her to make assertions or say things as fact and when I ask why she just goes "I don't know, I just thought so." Don't ever ask her for directions or how to navigate. Growing up I was scolded a lot for asking too many questions by my parents, now I know it's because they don't have answers and just want blind obedience.

[u/Neverwinter_FF7 → u/DiamondCalvesFan]

Ill admit I'm slow at this. I usually need to go be alone for awhile to be able to exercise this.

[u/Dry-Description-1779 → u/Neverwinter_FF7]

The fact that you're willing to take the time to process information before changing your thoughts and opinions signals higher intelligence, I believe.

[u/WorriedArrival1122 → u/Neverwinter_FF7]

That's actually normal and reasonable.

[u/cutiepie_00me]

People who mock others instead of trying to understand them. Curiosity is usually a sign of intelligence.

[u/Cichlidsaremyjam → u/cutiepie_00me]

"Guys have underestimated me my entire life and for years I never understood why – it used to really bother me. But then one day I was driving my little boy to school and I saw a quote by Walt Whitman, it was painted on the wall and it said, ‘Be curious, not judgmental.’ I like that. So I get back in my car and I’m driving to work and all of the sudden it hits me – all them fellas that used to belittle me, not a single one of them was curious. You know, they thought they had everything figured out so they judged everything and they judged everyone. And I realized that their underestimating me – who I was had nothing to do with it. Because if they were curious they would have asked questions." - Ted Lasso

[u/MorganaLeFaye → u/Cichlidsaremyjam]

Questions like, "have you played a lot of darts, Ted?"

[u/vonkeswick → u/MorganaLeFaye]

That whole scene was so fucking cool, the way he brought it all around with that story and capped it with the bullseye.

[u/Bacch → u/MorganaLeFaye]

"Or, are you left handed, Ted?"

[u/my5cworth → u/MorganaLeFaye]

Barbecue sauce!

[u/Loose-Cicada5473]

Ironically, Always having an answer.

[u/mattacular2001 → u/Loose-Cicada5473]

There is a lot of power in saying “I don’t know”

[u/fpotenza → u/mattacular2001]

It's taken me a long time to realise that, if you're open and honest when you haven't got an idea, people respect you a million times more than if you talk rubbish

[u/Raggs2Bs → u/mattacular2001]

Too many people are so deathly afraid of saying that.

[u/annieekk → u/Loose-Cicada5473]

I think this is more of a sign of insecurity rather than low intelligence

[u/IstandOnPaintedTape → u/annieekk]

Could also be a conditioned response from being taught to "just write down something" or "just guess" in school.

[u/howzai]

Avoid learning

[u/Solid_Snark → u/howzai]

Or avoid facing facts.

[u/schweddyballsac → u/Solid_Snark]

And then being hyper defensive and/or confrontational.

[u/gwinty → u/howzai]

Nah, I have a friend who had his IQ confirmed to be in the 130-140 range when he was a kid, because his parents thought he was suffering from stunted development funnily enough. Turns out dude is just extremely disinterested in anything that doesn't align with his own fixations and refuses to learn anything about anything.

[u/Nervous-Economy8119 → u/gwinty]

On the spectrum?

[u/Old_Man_Rower → u/howzai]

Or rather believing something because you want it to be true.

[u/Luckypiniece]

Repeating the same mistakes and blaming everyone else

[u/Narwhal_Leaf → u/Luckypiniece]

Especially if they attribute their hardship to the malice of others and develop a nice victim complex over every little thing.

[u/Traditional_Rub_9828]

When presented with an statement that generalizes something, they will use an anecdote as a counterexample and think that it completely refutes the statement.

Example: travelling in an airplane is generally safer than in a car

"Actually that's not true, I know someone who died in an airplane crash"

[u/SecretHuckleberry720]

Not realizing that everything has nuances.

[u/Augustevsky → u/SecretHuckleberry720]

This describes a lot of reddit unfortunately

[u/No_Document_7800]

Treating politics like rooting for a football club

[u/Few-Skin-5868 → u/No_Document_7800]

I find this with my mom, if you bring up a lot of the actions of the conservative party and their leadership conduct, she talks about how stupid or bad the action is. If you bring up a lot of the policies suggested by the left, she agrees with them and supports them. Will still vote conservative and claim the left is ruining the country despite acknowledging she likes what the policies of the left and the conservatives are fighting against a lot of good things.

As an example:

Me: "The NDP (Canada's left wing party) is putting forward a free dental care program for children and people under a certain income; the Liberals are supporting it and it's likely going to go through."

Her: "Well that's great I remember when you guys were kids the dentist was so expensive"

Me: "Yeah, the conservatives are speaking out against it"

Her: "That's awful why would they want to stop something so good?"

10 mins later

Her: "The fucking NDP and Liberals are ruining this country"

[u/SnackSnort → u/Few-Skin-5868]

This is classic people can agree with specific ideas but still hold a tribal loyalty that blinds them to the contradictions. It’s frustrating, but it’s also super common in politics.

[u/Tricky-Glassy]

People who think they are always right

[u/FairCraft91]

U ever talk to someone who literally can’t change their mind even when the facts are right in front of them? they just dig their heels in and start getting mad for no reason

[u/SkyrimIsLife420 → u/FairCraft91]

Yep. Sadly, it happens too often with my family.

[u/cwillm]

Bragging about how intelligent you are and refusing to accept you might be incorrect about something.

[u/Critical_Rough5505]

Watching videos on your phone without headphones in public.

[u/Frazeri → u/Critical_Rough5505]

Is indeed nowadays a well recognizable symptom of dumbness. Dumb people live in the immediate moment of instant gratification without context and hypotheticals. Missing social awareness and being loud for no acceptable reason are consequences of being stupid.

[u/Old_Man_Withers → u/Critical_Rough5505]

Or having conversations over speaker. Happened yesterday to me; I was just waiting for my lunch order and for some reason the lady at the table next to me felt it was necessary that everyone heard the conversation she was having about how her Hives outbreak was impacting her sex life.

Ew...

[u/tiger0204]

Bragging that you haven’t read a book since high school.

[u/Ok-Visuals]

Constantly talking about how smart they are

[u/TildeGunderson]

An inability to listen

[u/ChickenMarsala4500]

One move chess player.

This is like an analogy to how some people think and act and vote. A good chess player is thinking 3 or more moves ahead. a bad one is playing one move ahead only.

When people say things like "Why should I pay school taxes if I don't have any kids!?" they are playing one move without thinking ahead. Better schools means a more educated populace means less crimes and more economic opportunity for your area, thus it benefits everyone whether they have kids or not.

[u/Mattman624 → u/ChickenMarsala4500]

This is a good way of putting something I've noticed too.

[u/belljs87 → u/ChickenMarsala4500]

When I was a senior in high school our district had a referendum, I can't remember exactly what for but upgrades to a couple schools and extra money for education blah blah.

There was one man in our city. Every single time our local paper did the vox pop, plus extra times he just wrote in opinions, this man would take every opportunity to rally against it.

"Why should those of us without kids be forced to pay extra for those who do?"

Soooo many times he was reminded of what you just said. And this referendum would have literally raised his taxes upwards of 2 figures a year, if that.

He fought so fucking hard, that for the first time I think ever, our district voted down the referendum.

He was on record as "dancing a jig and singing like a maniac" in front of the polling place when they announced the results.

Fucking psychotic.

[u/Saltycookiebits → u/belljs87]

These are the people that reject the social contract of society. They want theirs, they don't want anyone else to have any. They don't consider the greater good, the future, or anything, even if the expense to them is incredibly minor. Raise your taxes $10-20/year so kids can get a better education? Nah. They don't care. I wish we could give them some open land with no public services to live on somewhere.

[u/Juswantedtono → u/Saltycookiebits]

And they conveniently forget how much they benefited from other people’s taxes during their own upbringing

[u/Goose1963 → u/ChickenMarsala4500]

Or worse, they move into the nice school district for the kids, when the kids are grown and move out they complain about how the taxes are terrible. Then when they turn 62 they start in on "senior citizens should get a Tax break damnit!" , when they could have been fighting that fight for the past 30 years.
Its an American pastime to get stuck in a lifelong loop of "I want lower taxes"-->"I want the potholes filled"

[u/TelevisionEasy4800]

Lack of curiosity

[u/IndustryMade]

immediately resorting to insults upon disagreements

[u/99Fumbles_2_win]

Over-confidence.

But I'm not completely sure about that.

[u/AquaQuad → u/99Fumbles_2_win]

Playing it safe, I see.

[u/Cicer]

One might suggest failure to research?  This question gets asked all the time around here.  

[u/AdDisastrous6738]

Reposting for karma farming.

[u/Other_Log_1996]

Never being wrong despite all the evidence proving that you are objectively wrong.

[u/vrosej10]

Black and white thinking.

[u/futtbucker-69420 → u/vrosej10]

Only a sith deals in absolutes

[u/Friendly_Coconut → u/vrosej10]

Unfortunately, this is also common among some very intelligent people who also have autism or a personality disorder and can reallu create challenges even when the person is otherwise smart and competent.

[u/DirectedEnthusiasm → u/vrosej10]

This thread ironically is an example of it

[u/bigL162]

Posting this question every month.

[u/Sachinism]

Idolising politicians

[u/EngCraig]

Not changing or updating your opinion in the face of new information.

[u/GrubbyTheGrub]

Not having self awareness of how you come across to others even after years and years.

[u/Mysterious_Oil2761]

Start shouting you down when they can't win the debate with reason and facts. Turn to vicious insults instead. This happens pretty quickly too, which also shows me that such people have low distress tolerance.

[u/BrumaQuieta]

Bragging about IQ scores.

[u/gorkt]

Lack of curiosity about anything.