How To Look Smart

Fool others about your intellect … or are they fooling you about theirs?

- Lisa Fields

SHEEPISHLY, Kevin Adkins admits that when he’s insecure, he uses big words to appear smarter.

“Only when I need to impress the person,” says the 41-year-old.

“Dates with women? Definitely. At the grocery store? Not so much.”

Recently, when flirting with a stylist at the barber shop, he asked her to give him a “symmetric ” haircut, instead of just telling her to trim it evenly. And when he gave an attractive woman directions, he made a point of telling her that the two options they discussed were “equidistant” rather than simply saying that both were about the same distance.

Adkins isn’t alone. Researchers have documented how people try to appear smarter or use criteria to decide whether others are smart. Many judgements are rooted in stereotypes, yet they persist.

“PEOPLE LOVE TO TAKE shortcuts when forming impressions of people,” says Bogdan Wojciszke, a professor of social psychology in Poland who studies how people form impressions of other people. “We tend to make judgements based on easy cues, without thinking too much.”

Because people know, consciously or unconsciously, that others form impressions of them after a glance or short conversation, they may work harder to give the “right” impression so they’re judged favourably. There may be no validity to these impressions, yet people value others’ perceptions.

“It’s almost a game that two people are playing,” says Eric R. Igou, social psychologist at Ireland’s University of Limerick, who also does studies on the subject. “If the observer, person B, doesn’t have the same theory, it can backfire.” Person A may be perceived as pretentious instead of intelligent, he adds.

Want to look smarter? Here are some tips from the latest studies.