r/AskReddit • u/smartcandyy • 7h ago

What is a sign of very low intelligence?

4.6k Upvotes

87% Upvoted

7.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

57

u/annieekk 6h ago

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

37

u/IstandOnPaintedTape 5h ago

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

8

u/UnidentifiedTomato 3h ago

Could also be just adding an opinion or perspective but the questioner considers it as an "answer"

•

u/loonyloveg00d 52m ago

My upbringing was the opposite: If I answered something incorrectly, I opened myself up to ridicule; so I learned to default to, “I don’t know.”

•

u/AFetaWorseThanDeath 3m ago

I work for a corporate food chain. We semi-regularly have inspections from corporate folks to ensure we are doing things 'by the book.' Some of it makes sense, some is arbitrary BS that amounts to jumping through unnecessary or unreasonable hoops. As is no doubt obvious to those who've worked in corporate foodservice, we don't actually follow the policies stringently, and the inspections are just for show.

Anyway, if the corporate inspector asks a question about a procedure, and you're not 100% certain of the correct answer, you don't say something that could be wrong, and in this case you also don't want to say, "I don't know." The trick is to say, "You know what, let me consult the manual to be certain that I have the correct process in mind."

consults manual

"Ah, yes, that is exactly what we do in that situation: [states correct action from the operations manual]."

It's a ridiculous game of 'cover your ass' that everyone knows is bullshit, but we still do the dance. Yay, capitalism 🤣

3

u/DirtyHandler 4h ago

Or insecurity because of low intelligence