Intelligence is sexy!

We’re inclined to admire and respect people we perceive to be “smart.”

It should not be a surprise then that a lot—and I mean a LOT— of people try to make themselves LOOK smart, just so people would look up to them.

So how can you tell if someone’s actually smart or if they’re just pretending?

Here are 8 behaviors that separate genuinely smart people from pseudo-intellectuals.

1) They’re not afraid to look dumb

To a pseudo-intellectual, one of the worst things that they can ever experience is to have someone question their knowledge.

Not only is it a chip at their ego, it’s also an opportunity for people to prove them wrong and—in their eyes—make them look “dumb.”

That is the reason why pseudo-intellectuals, for all their boasting and bravado, get mad and try to tear down the people who dare question them.

Genuinely smart people are the exact opposite.

They’re as smart as they are because they keep an open mind and are always willing to listen when people question their ideas. 

They’re not afraid of looking “dumb”, or of being proven wrong. What they’re afraid of is remaining ignorant.

So if anything, they’ll be more than happy to say “can you tell me more?” if someone else’s ideas intrigue them… even if it contradicts the things they’ve said!

You see, genuinely intelligent people prioritize truth and knowledge over things like pride, ego, and “reputation.”

2) They don’t form opinions too quickly

We live in a world that’s full of polarizing topics and controversy. 

We stumble into it on the news, on social media, and even over the dinner table with family and friends.

A country decided to send their police to keep the peace in another country. 

A protest turned into a shootout. 

A company decided to throw a lavish party while their poor workers starve.

Most of the time, we simply just can’t claim to say “I don’t have an opinion” because that would be embarrassing…and it would seem like we don’t care enough.

Pseudo-intellectuals would immediately assume whatever narrative suits their biases. But genuine intellectuals will dig deeper. 

They’ll try to read up more about the issues and understand them before they say their piece.

3) They don’t just echo what other say

They might be willing to listen to other people’s opinions, and to entertain them, but that does not mean that they’ll necessarily agree.

An idea might be wrong, but it can still have a grain of truth or a semblance of logic within it. 

They can listen to an idea that opposes their beliefs and say things like “from your point of view, I can see why this makes sense” without agreeing to it.

They don’t just mindlessly repeat what other people have to say, even if they happen to share the opinion or even make the exact same arguments.

Instead, they’ll stand their ground and confidently make their own arguments. 

They can explain the same idea in several different ways if they need to. And when they’re sharing other people’s ideas or arguments, they’ll tell other people about it.

4) They try to understand you even if they don’t agree with you

Winning praise, being seen as superior, and being untouchable—these are things that motivate pseudo-intellectuals.

“Smart,” for them, is not necessarily about actually being smart. It’s about whether you think like them or not.

So they’ll just dismiss you if you ever disagree with them. 

They’re not interested in what you actually have to say, the way you understand things, or why your opinion is the way it is.

Genuinely smart people, however, acknowledge that they’re not always going to be the “smartest”, and even if they are, that does not mean that they’re always correct.

And that’s why they hear you out. 

They try to understand you and the reasons why you think the way you do. 

They might try to share their ideas, or ask you to clarify when something does not seem to make sense, but even then, you can feel that they’re just genuinely trying to understand you.

5) They’re genuinely curious about everyone’s opinion

Pseudo-intellectuals obsess over “smart” people. 

They exalt the opinions of those people who have earned three degrees and a PhD, but look down on “plebeians” who only graduated high school.

Genuinely smart people, on the other hand, are always willing to lend an ear regardless of how accomplished (or not) you are academically.

After all, it’s not like people are always going to be right just because they’ve graduated with Latin honors. And it’s not like people are always going to be wrong just because they’ve never stepped foot in a classroom.

They will acknowledge qualifications, of course. 

Primatologists are almost always more well-informed in primatology than physicists, and indigenous people will always be more informed in their culture than outsiders ever will.

But they’ll always take care to hear everyone out before they form their own opinions.

6) They’re happy to be proven wrong

Pseudo-intellectuals build their self-confidence and reputation off the idea that they “always know better”, or that their opinion is somehow more informed and thus more valuable.

This is the reason why, as I said earlier, pseudo-intellectuals hate being proven wrong.

Genuinely smart people, however, don’t care a whit about that. If anything, it makes them HAPPY when someone proves them wrong.

This is because they acknowledge the fact that no-one will always be 100% correct. 

We’re all human, and we’re all bound to be wrong here and there.

So they don’t take it as a personal attack when someone proves them wrong. If anything, it means that they’re now LESS wrong—and more right—than they were a few moments ago.

7) They prioritize understanding and proper communication

Einstein once said that if you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it enough.

But big words do make an impression. And pseudo-intellectuals care too much about being seen as, well… smart. 

So they deliberately use terms that make it hard for the average person to understand them.

They’ll drop smart-sounding terms like “pedagogy” and “eructation” when they know they could just use simpler terms.  

Genuinely smart people don’t do that. They acknowledge that the number one purpose of communication is, ultimately, making themselves understood.

The ability to break down complicated concepts and make them easily understood to people who know less is not always easy. 

It’s a skill that takes a lot of practice and awareness to master, and the genuinely smart ones have mastered it.

8) They pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge

Pseudo-intellectuals read up just so that they’ll appear smart at parties. So, when they study, they try to learn the latest news and trivia.

That way, they always have something to say.

But the catch is that they usually just learn “enough”—enough to make them sound educated.

Genuinely smart people, however, want to learn because they love learning. They can spend hours upon hours losing themselves in Wikipedia, jumping from topic to tangentially-related topic.

They can eat up entire books in their thirst for knowledge, and they’re not at all deterred by those books being “difficult” at all. 

They might know less topics than a pseudo-intellectual their age, but their knowledge of the topics they are informed about are much, much deeper.

In other words, they nerd out.

Final thoughts

If you know what to look out for, it should not be too hard to separate genuinely smart people from pseudo-intellectuals.

Pay attention not only to their words, but to the things they do.

Pseudo-intellectuals are more concerned about making people listen to THEM, and shutting down people who think differently. 

Genuinely smart people are more concerned about understanding the people around them and understanding those who think differently.

Genuinely smart people keep an open mind, whereas pseudo-intellectuals keep their minds shut.

So keep an eye out. 

You’ll want to keep pseudo-intellectuals at arm’s length before you’d start believing everything they say.