Intelligent People Tend To Stay Awake Longer, Leave A Mess Everywhere, And Swear More, Studies Confirm

Do you often stay up late? Does your family or partner often criticize you for leaving a mess everywhere around you? Do you swear like a sailor? Well, if you answered all the questions with a yes, let me tell you that these things might seem to you like they’re just bad habits, but there’s much more to it.

Studies show that people who have these habits are actually highly intelligent.

Here’s why:

Intelligent people are night owls.

People who possess high levels of intelligence tend to be active at night and stay awake longer. One scientific study that was carried out on a large number of young Americans has shown that “more intelligent children grow up to be more nocturnal as adults than less intelligent children.”

The results showed that individuals with an IQ of over 125 go to bed at around 00:29 on both weeknights and weekends.

And it might interest you that some very well-known people from all walks of life are also famous for being night owls, such as Charles Darwin, Elvis Presley, Keith Richards, Winston Churchill, and President Barack Obama.

Intelligent people tend to be messy.

Next time someone reprimands you for the big pile of dirty dishes in the sink or the scattered clothes and books in your bedroom, remember not to take this to heart. Remind yourself that messiness is a trait of highly intelligent people.

Because it really is. Studies conducted at the University of Minnesota have shown that a messy desk is linked to a higher IQ. If you don’t spend a lot of time cleaning, clearing things up, and organizing everything around you, be it in your office, your home, or even your car, your mind is evidently occupied with more important things.

The studies went on to show that a messy setting promotes creative thinking and stimulates new ideas.

Psychological scientist Kathleen Vohs concludes: “Disorderly environments seem to inspire breaking free of tradition, which can produce fresh insights. Orderly environments, in contrast, encourage convention and playing it safe.”

Intelligent people use bad language more.

You go to bed late and you leave a mess behind? Well, if you also tend to swear like a sailor, let us congratulate you – you truly are highly intelligent.

Swearing is usually considered a trait of people who are ill-mannered and unable to engage in proper communication because they have a “limited vocabulary.” However, if you think about this more carefully, you’ll see that it’s those who don’t use cuss words that limit their own vocabulary, simply because they deliberately use fewer words than other people.  

One study has linked people who swear more with higher IQ scores. The study has shown that the ability to generate swear words is a sign of wide vocabulary and high fluency rather than a sign of verbal deficits.