13 signs that say you're smarter than you think

Stupid people tend to overestimate their competence, while smart people tend to be humble. As Shakespeare said, “The fool thinks he is smart; the clever one knows that he is stupid. "

This conventional wisdom is supported by a Cornell University study by social psychologists David Diningham and Justin Kruger. The phenomenon is now known as the Dunning-Kruger effect.

So, if you are not overly confident in your own intelligence, this could be a sign that you are quite smart.
Here are some subtle signs that you are significantly smarter than you think.

13 PHOTOS

1. You took music lessons.

Research shows that music helps kids' minds develop in several ways. A 2011 study found that verbal intelligence scores among 4-6-year-olds increased after just a month of music lessons. A 2004 study led by Glenn Schellenberg found that 6-year-olds who attended nine months of piano or vocal lessons experienced an IQ boost over children who took drama lessons or did not.

2. You are older.

Norwegian epidemiologists used military records to study birth order, health status, and IQ estimates for nearly 250,000 18- and 19-year-old men born between 1967 and 1976. The results showed that, on average, the firstborn had an IQ of 103, the second child had an IQ of 100, and 99 the third.

3. You are thin.

For a 2006 study, scientists did roughly 2,200 tests of adults over five years, and the results showed that the larger the waist, the lower the cognitive ability.

4. You have a cat.

A 2014 study of 600 students found that people identified as “dog lovers” were more outgoing than those who identified as “cat lovers,” on a test that measures personality and intelligence. But guess what? Those same cats scored more on a test that measures cognitive ability.

5. You were breastfed.

In two studies, the researchers looked at over 3,000 children in the UK and New Zealand. Those babies who were breastfed scored almost seven points higher on the IQ test, but only if they had a specific version of the FADS2 gene. (This version of the gene was present in roughly equal amounts among breastfed and non-breastfed babies.)

6. You are left-handed.

Research has linked left-handedness with “divergent thinking,” a form of creativity that allows you to come up with new ideas, at least among men.

7. You are tall.

In 2008, a Princeton study of thousands of people found that taller people score more on IQ tests.

8. You learned to read early.

In 2012, researchers looked at about 2,000 pairs of identical twins in the UK and found that a child who learned to read earlier tended to score more points on cognitive tests.

9. You worry a lot.

A growing body of research shows that anxious people can be smarter than others.

10. You are funny.

In one study, 400 psychology students conducted intelligence tests that measured abstract reasoning abilities and verbal intelligence. They were then asked to come up with titles for several cartoons, and these captions were reviewed by independent evaluators. As predicted, the smarter students came up with funnier headlines.

11. You are dirty.

A study published in the Psychological Science of the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management by Kathleen Vox found that working in an untidy room really fosters creativity.

12. You didn't have sex until you graduated from high school.

According to a study from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, high school students with higher IQs lost their innocence much later than those with average or lower IQs. The main sample included 12,000 teenagers from 7th to 12th grade.

13. You are an owl.

One study published in the Official Journal of the International Society for the Study of Individual Difference found that owls tended to be better in terms of intelligence. He concluded that ethnographic evidence suggests that "nocturnal activities" were rare in the lives of our ancestors. This means that smarter people are more likely to stay up late because smarter people are more likely to "support evolutionarily new values."