These 12 behaviors signal an ignorant person who thinks they’re a genius.
A very wise person once said that when you’re dead, you don’t notice it because you’re already gone: it’s everyone around you who suffers. The same goes for those who are painfully ignorant. The traits below are generally shared by those who think they’re rocket scientists, but who, in reality, couldn’t assemble a simple Lego tower.
1. Labeling those who disagree with them as “stupid.”
It’s amazing how quickly someone will call another an idiot or stupid when that person has the audacity to disagree with them; even if that person has a mountain of solid evidence to back up their stance or years of personal experience with the subject matter.
A painfully ignorant person who thinks they rival Stephen Hawking on the intellect scale will often resort to insults and name-calling when they lose composure or are faced with a reasonable argument that contradicts one of their strongly held convictions.
2. Broadcasting how intelligent and worldly they are on a regular basis.
No adult who has wits and self-control will brag about how smart they are all the time. In fact, if you hear someone crowing about how smart they are, that’s a strong indicator to the contrary, according to researchers at Pepperdine University.
An ignorant person believes they know everything, whereas a wise person knows there is always so much more to learn, and thus remains humble. Besides, intelligence is always self-evident, much like class: if it were true, they wouldn’t have to try to convince anyone.
3. Instead of making valid points, they’ll keep repeating the same phrase (or question).
Those who don’t have a strong argument will instead repeat a phrase or question over and over again — usually getting more aggressive as time goes on. Since they don’t have solid ground to stand upon, they use repetition and power to try to badger others into accepting what they’re saying.
This approach is akin to an acoustic battering ram, and is actually used as an interrogation method. Break down someone’s will by repeating something often enough and they’ll say or do whatever you want.
4. When they’re given solid information that contradicts their stance, they double down instead of accepting they might be wrong.
Adaptability and the ability to rise above one’s own emotional stance to get to the truth of the matter is a clear sign of intelligence. The opposite can be said for those who don’t listen to any new information, and instead choose to hunker down with their heads in the sand.
Making mistakes and being wrong is uncomfortable, but it gives us the opportunity for personal growth. In contrast, those who refuse to acknowledge mistakes will instead choose the hill of willful ignorance to die on.
5. Refusing to understand another’s perspective.
They may insist that their way of seeing or doing things is the only correct way, and those who take a different approach — or see things differently — are simply wrong. It never occurs to them that two people can both be right and process things their own way.
They never make a point of asking others to explain their reasoning so they can get a better idea of why they think or feel the way they do. Instead, they simply dismiss whatever they say as dumb.
6. Continually attempting to sound erudite by using words they don’t quite understand.
These people will often sound as though they’re shaking a thesaurus and blurting whatever words fall out of it. Instead of sounding well-educated and articulate, they make fools of themselves while simultaneously thinking that others admire them for their intellect.
They also consistently use words or phrases inaccurately. For example, they may say that they caught one of their parents “in flagrante” because they went to get a snack from the kitchen late at night, or say “excetera” instead of “et cetera”.
7. Believing their opinion or feeling about something is as valid as factual evidence.
They often mistakenly believe that a strong emotional force is superior to quiet reason. Feelings aren’t facts, and just because a person feels deeply about something, doesn’t make it true.
While it’s important to follow one’s intuition in many situations, it’s also crucial to be observant and acknowledge evidence. A person may feel like it’s a great idea to go swimming during a thunderstorm while waving a large piece of metal around, but that probably isn’t going to end well.
8. Condemning other people’s education on a topic as irrelevant compared to their own “common sense” experience.
A person’s accumulated firsthand knowledge is very valuable, but disregarding what other, experienced people have to say on the same topic is not.
For instance, this person’s tomato plants may have thrived during a year in which they did a little dance outside, so now it’s common sense to them that they dance to make their tomatoes grow. In reality, the weather and soil conditions were optimal that year, and that’s what encouraged the growth, but they refuse to accept this as a possibility.
9. Perpetually mispronouncing or misspelling words and phrases.
It’s understandable if someone has only ever read a word and immediately corrects themselves after hearing the correct pronunciation, but those who claim to be geniuses while simultaneously insisting on pronouncing a word wrong because that’s their way of saying it are infantile at best.
The same goes for intentionally continuing to misspell something because they didn’t like feeling stupid after being corrected. This can only lead to miscommunications, as someone who writes “woe!” instead of “whoa!” in a text may assumed to be mourning, rather than surprised.
10. Correcting others, incorrectly.
Few things are as frustrating as knowing the truth of a particular subject (possibly because you’re an expert in it), yet being condescended to by a person who has no idea what they’re talking about, but is convinced that they’re right.
You may be discussing how potatoes were introduced to Europe in the 16th century, only for someone to mock you for your stance because apparently, potatoes are indigenous to Ireland. An ignorant person will refuse to listen to reason and won’t back down from their “superior” knowledge on the subject.
11. They refuse to learn more about a topic because they feel they know all there is to know about it.
When contradicted and presented with solid evidence, an ignorant person who thinks they’re a genius will dismiss it because supposedly they know better. After all, their great-grandparents did things this way, and they knew best, so there will be no further discussion on the topic.
As a result, they’re going to keep hanging chicken feet around their necks and gargling turpentine to treat throat infections instead of taking antibiotics. Or they’ll carry on drinking diet sodas after eating junk food to cancel out the calories, regardless of modern evidence that may indicate otherwise.
12. They display selective learning patterns that fall into accord with their beliefs.
This can involve religious scripture, history, scientific breakthroughs, or any other topic imaginable. They’ll loudly promote and adhere to the aspects that align with their own beliefs, and will both discard and condemn whatever doesn’t resonate with them.
A perfect example of this would be a person who quotes parts of the bible that support their own bigotry (like being against homosexuality) but conveniently ignores other passages that condemn eating shellfish or pork, which they enjoy eating on a regular basis.
