11 Strange Habits That Highly Intelligent People Have!

The cliché of the crazy professor and the absent-minded scientist has already been used enough by Hollywood and the like. We always imagine highly intelligent people as exotic creatures who lock themselves up in their laboratories and work on experiments that don't always end well. But being able to call an above-average IQ your own doesn't always have to show up in such a classic way. In this article we will present you 11 quite strange phenomena from the daily life of highly intelligent people.

1. Their vocabulary is outrageous

You'd think it would be the other way around, but highly intelligent people know a lot more swear words than their averagely gifted peers. Of course, this circumstance results from an overall broader vocabulary, which is just not always quotable in everyday life and seems appropriate for an eloquent table conversation. Seen in this light, it makes perfect sense that smarter people know more swear words. However, they also possess a good quantum of social intelligence, which is why they are quite capable of judging when curses and obscenities are appropriate and when they are not. Even more amazing in this context are probably our prejudices. Once again, they would have spontaneously led us rather surely up the garden path and made us think the exact reverse. After all, purely intuitively, we would rather associate a low level of education and lower intelligence with the mastery of verbal indiscretions.

2. Scribbles line their notes

Highly intelligent people like to use the margins of their notes and papers for drawing and sketching. Geometric shapes and doodles of any kind are the preferred motifs. According to scientific studies, doodling is clearly a habit associated with intelligence. The areas of the brain involved are responsible for problem-solving skills and information processing. In addition, doodling trains the performance and retentiveness of our memory. Experiments have now shown that people who doodle can remember almost 30% more information than those whose margins on the notepad remain clean. These seemingly thoughtless scribbles serve as a kind of outlet to visually express our thoughts and emotions. While scribbling, our brain takes a break and goes into a kind of stand-by state from the thing we should actually be concentrating on. In the background, however, the little gray cells continue to work on it.

3.They are night owls

Many geniuses have been known to turn night into day. Leonardo da Vinci, for example, allegedly needed less than 3 hours of sleep per night. Science gives us several possible reasons for this phenomenon. One of them is once again rooted in human evolution. Since the night was much more dangerous than the day in earlier times, our ancestors who had to work a night shift inevitably had to be more intelligent in order to survive. Another explanation sees the reason for the preferred nocturnal activities of highly intelligent individuals in the fact that they tend to be more introverted and prefer to use the seclusion of the night hours at their workplaces rather than during the day. Then they can think and work undisturbed by the rest of the world and without annoying interruptions.

4. Chewing noises drive them crazy

Admittedly, few of us find the sounds of chewing and slurping during a meal really appealing. Chewing and eating with the mouth open is a bad habit that drives many people crazy. Highly intelligent people are particularly disturbed by the background noise. This is because people with above-average IQs cannot easily block out sensory information that is irrelevant to them, including interference with their sense of hearing. In short, smacking interferes with their thinking.

5. They are daydreamers

Highly intelligent people have mastered the technique of visualizing to perfection. However, their minds would probably forbid them to give these daydreams more substance than mere fantasizing.

6. Talking to themselves is not unusual for them

People with high IQs appreciate a successful conversation on the same level. It's no wonder, then, that they often talk to themselves. Moreover, talking to oneself naturally holds benefits for the brain. Saying numbers, dates and facts out loud strengthens memory. As is well known, language is not only communication, it actually strengthens our perception and thinking. The effect is similar in impact to taking handwritten notes and animates our brains to work faster and more effectively.

7. They are not Party Animals

No surprise here: highly intelligent people are rarely found at parties and other social events. They are couch potatoes and tend to be introverts by nature. Surprisingly, however, they are very familiar with sweet idleness. They like to laze around because it allows their minds to regenerate. The resulting lack of exercise may not be particularly healthy, but in the end it actually increases brain activity. Studies have shown that non-thinkers are much more active than thinkers. This may be because non-thinkers get bored faster and need to be active to avoid being bothered with troublesome thoughts.

8. Chaos rules their environment

The desks and workplaces of highly intelligent people always resemble a war zone. So the humorous saying, "The genius overlooks the chaos," has merit. To call them sloppy, however, would be incorrect. Intelligent people tend to be more creative. They then sink completely into their thoughts and the love of order will just have to wait. Studies even show that chaotic work environments promote creativity, whereas orderliness restricts it.

9. They are hard on themselves

Highly intelligent people are very self-critical. They are not quick to forgive themselves for mistakes or mishaps. If you have grown up with high expectations, you can't seem to leave them behind easily. The problem with intelligence is not least that it reveals every little detail, even tiny little things that remain hidden to the averagely gifted.

10. They love solitude

Highly intelligent people prefer to be alone with themselves. They never feel lonely, as their thoughts are constantly circling and providing them with new exciting projects and theories. Other people stress them out enormously and they avoid socializing whenever possible. They live by the motto, "Better alone than in bad company."

11. Cold water is their element

A very interesting preference shared by many well-known geniuses and high-flyers. They appreciate cold water in a wide variety of forms. History tells us, for example, that Benjamin Franklin swam London's frosty Thames with an icy passion, while in the U.S. Theodore Roosevelt took advantage of Washington's winter to swim a few lengths in the half-frozen Potomac River. The benefits of cold-water therapy have been recognized by science since Hippocrates. Sebastian Kneipp and his followers made cold water showers popular in our latitudes. Allegedly, cold water not only stimulates our bodily functions, but also spurs our minds to peak performance.

Today's Conclusion: Different is not always bad

Highly intelligent people usually don't have an easy life. Even as children, they involuntarily out themselves as different, so to speak, which is enough to make them outsiders in the eyes of their classmates. In later years, most of them succeed in finding their place in society. They can achieve considerable success in science and research. In real life, however, they very often prefer to stay to themselves. Like many great gifts, a high IQ is both a curse and a blessing. That's all for today.