Intelligence is one of those elusive qualities that feels like you just know it when you see it. The good news is that researchers have been busy trying to put a number on it, and a growing body of evidence points to some truly unexpected characteristics that show up more often among the brainy crowd. In this roundup of 10 weird things that make you smart, we’ll dive into the quirky traits that seem to hang out with higher IQs. Don’t let any of this inflate your ego – you’re not automatically a genius just because you’ve got a few of these oddball features.
10 Weird Things That Make You Smart
1 Handedness
The human brain is split into two hemispheres that, while performing many of the same jobs, have subtle differences. One side usually takes the lead – which explains why most of us favor a particular hand. Several studies have hinted that left‑handed folks tend to score a notch higher on IQ tests and often breeze through them faster than right‑handed peers. On the flip side, other research suggests left‑handers display a broader IQ spread, meaning they’re over‑represented at both the very high and the very low ends of the intelligence spectrum.
2 Homosexuality
Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa uncovered a modest but statistically significant association between having multiple homosexual partners and elevated intelligence scores. The pattern wasn’t that homosexuality itself boosts IQ; rather, individuals who reported more same‑sex partners also tended to rank higher on standard intelligence measures. Kanazawa speculated that this might reflect a broader inquisitive mindset, a trait that often walks hand‑in‑hand with intellectual curiosity. Some scholars argue that societal pressures, such as bullying of perceived gay youth, could channel these individuals toward academic achievement as a form of coping and validation.
3 Birth Order
Multiple investigations have highlighted a correlation between a person’s rank in the sibling hierarchy and their IQ. First‑born children, on average, tend to outscore their younger siblings, with each subsequent birth position showing a gradual dip in test performance. Early theories debated whether prenatal factors (like diminishing maternal resources) or post‑natal dynamics (such as parental attention) drove the effect. Recent work leans toward the latter, indicating that the way families treat each child – rather than birth order per se – shapes cognitive outcomes. Intriguingly, when a first‑born passes away, the next child often enjoys the same IQ boost that the original eldest would have received.
4 Atheism
The link between religious belief and intelligence has been scrutinized at both the individual and societal levels. Nations with higher percentages of atheists tend to rank near the top of international IQ averages. To control for cultural confounds, researchers have also examined personal belief systems. A 2008 study ordered participants by intelligence and found atheists occupying the highest tier, followed by agnostics, liberal believers, and finally, religious fundamentalists at the bottom. While the causality remains murky, the pattern suggests a notable inverse relationship between dogmatic faith and measured cognitive ability.
5 Body Hair
Dr. Aikarakudy Alias turned his attention to the often‑overlooked trait of body hair, probing its connection to educational attainment rather than raw IQ. His findings revealed that men enrolled in university or holding graduate degrees sported more chest and back hair than those in manual labor jobs. Moreover, among students, the most academically successful tended to be the hairiest. While the study focused on men, it leaves open the question of whether a similar pattern exists for women, a gap yet to be explored systematically.
6 Mood
Ernest Hemingway famously quipped, “Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” The stereotype that geniuses are doomed to melancholy has persisted for decades. Earlier research linked high IQ with depression, but a recent UK study flipped the script, showing that individuals with lower IQ scores reported higher rates of unhappiness than their smarter counterparts. This suggests that the emotional challenges often associated with brilliance may stem more from surrounding circumstances or personality traits linked to intelligence than from intellect itself.
7 Eccentricity
Eccentricity, the penchant for oddball habits that deviate from social norms without causing harm, often crops up among creative scholars. While largely anecdotal, there’s a thread linking intellectual brilliance with unconventional behavior. Montaigne observed that “obsession is the wellspring of genius and madness,” hinting that a single‑minded focus may give rise to both extraordinary insight and quirky quirks. Academic circles, in particular, seem to nurture a higher proportion of eccentric personalities.
8 Alcohol Consumption
Longitudinal studies tracking British children into adulthood have uncovered a surprising predictor: intelligence appears to forecast future alcohol intake. Children who performed better on cognitive tests were more likely to become heavy drinkers as adults, a pattern echoed in U.S. cohorts. The underlying mechanisms remain speculative, but the correlation suggests that smarter youngsters may gravitate toward alcohol for a variety of social or psychological reasons later on.
9 Bipolar Disorder
Since antiquity, a link between madness and brilliance has been whispered in scholarly circles. Modern research continues to explore this connection, albeit with more precise terminology. A Swedish investigation compared academic performance with later‑life mental health and found that students in the highest achievement tier were four times more likely to develop bipolar disorder than their lower‑performing peers. The findings underscore a complex interplay between cognitive excellence and certain psychiatric conditions.
10 Chocolate Consumption
Correlation does not equal causation, yet a whimsical study recently plotted the number of Nobel laureates per ten million citizens against each country’s total chocolate intake. The resulting graph revealed a surprisingly robust, statistically significant positive relationship. While munching on chocolate won’t hand you a Nobel Prize, it appears that a chocolate‑rich environment isn’t detrimental to brain health and might even be a tasty accomplice in a clever nation’s success.