Having people perceive you as being more intelligent may be useful in certain social situations such as a job interview or if you are going to an event where you will feel intellectually inferior. There have been multiple studies looking at different factors that could influence people’s perception of you and specifically how intelligent they think you are. As a child, having to wear glasses may have led to being bullied and called “four eyes” or a nerd, but as an adult wearing glasses can be a good thing in relation to people’s perception of you. One of the studies I looked at concluded that people with thick rimmed glasses were perceived to be more intelligent than people with no glasses or rimless glasses, this is known as the glasses stereotype. Another concluded that drinking alcohol or being associated with alcohol related cues can cause people to perceive you as being less intelligent, this is known as the imbibing idiot bias. A third study indicated that using a middle initial or even better, multiple middle initials can change the way people perceive your intellectual performance, this is called the middle initial effect. A fourth small study concluded that women found men more attractive and perceived them to be smarter if they displayed a sense of humour.
So if you want people to think you’re smart, wear thick-rimmed glasses, use a middle initial, don’t drink or associate yourself with alcohol and crack a few jokes.
Resources:
http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.uleth.ca/science/article/pii/S1057740812000927
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.uleth.ca/doi/10.1002/ejsp.2026/full
Sarah Jones's Social Cognition Blog 
I like your topic, always interesting how humans perceive one another. I believe that these kinds of bias work on many levels. In a way, they fall into the, ‘what is beautiful is good’ stereotype, just meaning that if an individuals is good looking, dresses sharp, isn’t seen as a drunk and so forth, he must be more intelligent, a good person and more successful. Of course, this should never just be assumed, but it frequently is. (Karen Dion, Ellen Bescheid Elaine Walster, University of Minnesota University of Wisconsin) Personally, once of the heaviest ways I perceive intelligence from another is from the language they use, whether it be in their writing, or regular conversation. Less swearing and more descriptive words always leaves of impression of intelligence. It is not just about using large words though, it’s about understand their meaning, and how they best fit into a sentence. There’s nothing that bothers me more than when someone uses a large word that they clearly don’t understand, and try to jam it into a sentence that doesn’t make sense. It can become a very quick and clear indication of language skills, which in turn becomes associated with intelligence. There are tons of articles I found that are along the lines of ‘ways to make you sound smarter!” and I’ll post some below since this is an article of appearing smarter.
http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/33-easy-speaking-hacks-to-make-you-sound-smarter/
http://www.awakeningpeople.com/the-words-you-use-matter.html
Click to access 17Dion.pdf
http://www.rd.com/advice/grammar-rules-how-to-sound-smarter/
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Interesting topic choice! I heard your talk and enjoyed it so I thought I’d read your blog as well. This is one of those things that is there but not often talked about! I myself am guilty of perceiving someone who had thick rimmed glasses on to be very smart! but why? right?! they are only an object on your face… According to (Leder, et al., 2011) their study suggested not only are people who wear eyeglasses are perceived to be more intelligent but are also perceived as less attractive! As well as perceived trustworthiness, but they concluded it depends on what kind of glasses that are worn, as you talked about above with the glasses being rimless or thick rimmed glasses, with the thick rimmed glasses in this study to be the same as your research, where thick rimmed glasses showed an increase in perceived trustworthiness and intelligence, but they stated there was no decrease in attractiveness.
Leder, H., Forster, M., & Gerger, G. (2011). The Glasses Stereotype Revisited. Swiss Journal of Psychology, 70(4), 211-222.
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Interesting topic!! I find that this has a relation to the halo effect. The halo effect is how our impressions of a person has an influence on how we view that person’s other characteristics as a whole. If we know or have observed one characteristic of a person, we will think of other characteristics that will correlate with the first trait of that individual. This shows that a persons first impressions can also make people jump to other conclusions about their other traits. If we think that someone is nice, we may also think that they are smart. Another example of this effect is how we view famous people. With individuals who are famous and well liked, we may also characterize them as smart, nice, caring, and with other desirable traits.
https://www.verywell.com/what-is-the-halo-effect-2795906
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To elaborate more on this association of intelligence to certain arbitrary traits, Rick & Schweitzer (2010) found in their results when trying to prove the imbibing idiot bias that “the bias is not driven by a belief that less intelligent people are more likely to consume alcohol.” While noting that social alcohol consumption can be tricky in a professional setting, it was also found that prospective job candidates set a negative first impression when ordering wine at an interview held over dinner. Employers found prospects less intelligent and less hireable when choosing to order wine over soda. Ironically enough, the prospective job candidates believe that ordering wine rather than soda will help them appear more intelligent, contrary to research results. This may come from perceived reoccurring notions that wine is a “classy drink,” as opposed to beer or even soda.
Rick, S., & Schweitzer, M. E. (n.d.). The Imbibing Idiot Bias: Consuming Alcohol Can Be Hazardous to Your (Perceived) Intelligence. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1623056
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It seems there are many ways to appear more intelligent. One website talked about being a man. What they meant was that men seem to overestimate their IQ by 5 points and women underestimate their’s by around 5 points so people could possibly think that men are smarter (emphasize on “people could possibly think”). Another way to appear more intelligent is simply by being intelligent! If people want to show that their intelligent then they should start reading more and learning new things in order to become more and more intelligent and therefore showing that they are.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/extreme-fear/201007/how-seem-smarter
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I really loved and enjoyed reading your blog. It is amazing how the human brain works. A study I looked at also suggests that an individual will appear smarter when they are considered “Attractive.” Studies have shown that people tend to think that good-looking people are smarter than average. This is usually ascribed to what’s called the “Halo Effect,” the idea that if we hold a positive opinion about one attribute of someone or something, we tend tend to ascribe all sorts of other positive attributes to them. Also, the way in which one presents themselves determines how “Smart” they are. A study conducted in 2008 undergraduate researchers at the University of Wisconsin subjects pictures of “a woman dressed either in a tank top and short skirt or a polo shirt and jeans. They found that the same woman, dressed in “preppy” fashions, was judged to be significantly more intelligent than when she was dressed more provocatively. Again, the halo effect may help explain this result. Interestingly, when the woman in the more provocatively-dressed image was said to be enrolled in a predominantly female major.” You should take a look at this article. Reference: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/extreme-fear/201007/how-seem-smarter
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Very intriguing talk and blog post. I think that the Glasses Bias and Idiot Bias are formed from our exposure to pop culture. If you look at some of the popular shows and movies that we partook in: Dexters laboratory Cartoon TV show, the character Dexter wore classes and he was a genius, Leonard from Big Bang Theory wore glasses, Harold Ramis from Ghostbusters wore glasses and was portrayed as a geek or nerd of the group, Legally Blonde: Elle Woods tried to fit in with Harvard students by wearing fake glasses to appear more intelligent. Marty from the movie grease put on a pair of rimmed glasses to look smarter. In older forms of pop culture, all geeks and nerds who were smart or appeared as smart wore big glasses.
The Idiot bias can also stem from a similar line of origin, high school portrayals of “dumb Jocks” or reckless teenagers or heavy partiers who engage in alcohol. Steven Stiffler from American pie who consumed a lot of alcohol when we were the life of the party. the cast from the movie animal house, and house party, and Todd Phillips from Old school.
In the third study about intellect and a middle initial, I wonder by using a middle initial, it provokes a sense of mystery, where you try to guess what the letter stands for, or can it be traced from the idea that when people get degrees, masters and post docs, it’s always displayed with initials: BAS.C, MAS, PH. D, etc…?
References:
American Psychology Association (2012) ‘Alcohol consumption in movies and adolescent binge drinking in 6 European countries’, PEDIATRICS, 129(4), pp. X14–X14. doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-2809d.
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