# Can you see intelligence in a person's eyes? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 24, 2019, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965 "2019-04-24T00:45:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2019, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/22 "2019-04-24T19:33:19Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Strictly speaking, shouldn’t that be “No, taint.” ? Taint much of a difference, considering it was BC. (before coffee) ---
**Author:** ![busterpickle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@busterpickle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/busterpickle)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/23 "2019-04-25T05:45:54Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Not the eyes _per se_ but changes in facial expression, which include a lot of fine changes around the eyes. The speed at which these take place, and in response to what. > > Around some people, I get a sub-one-second processing of “I heard that” / “I made a connection between that and something amusing or horrifying or whatever” / “I considered what I know about you and realized you no doubt just made the same connection” / “I am observing you and realize that yo unot only just made the same connection but you know that I did and furthermore you know we’re mutually aware of that and amused or mutually horrified by it”. > > With less intelligent people, all of that is slower and the upper layers are often missing. > > With still less intelligent people, the connections between things are missing entirely; they don’t get reflected in their facial expressions; they’re just hearing what’s going on right now and I’m not seeing much correlation. > It’s an impression that takes place over extended time, because (as in this example) a given person may simply not be aware of something, may not have the correlated data in their heads, and that is not a function of intelligence (although being a sponge and soaking up lots of info sort of IS), so ignorance and lack of exposure in one such event doesn’t feed a conclusion of lower intelligence but if repeated often, it sort of is, and vice versa for someone who seems to “get it” at every juncture. I can think of someone being tired after a long day not having these micro-expressions. Or maybe just waiting for someone to finish mansplaining something? Possibly they are a LEO or have had to stand guard duty, which I used to do. Every once in awhile you’d get someone who would try and challenge and you could tell they were looking for some facial inflection. Having a total dead-pan reaction can have a certain effect on the challenger. So, I am very “dead-pan” to those I am not familiar with, I’ll just stare through you. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/24 "2019-04-25T11:28:06Z")
I try to avoid looking at people’s eyes. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/25 "2019-04-25T11:33:50Z")
The best test is to see if you can detect it while gazing into a mirror. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/26 "2019-04-25T13:23:51Z")
I used to be a college prof so I had a lot of experience meeting new students and then later finding out how bright they were. Yeah, there’s often a “look” than can clue you in right away about their brain power. But … It’s not just in their eyes although that’s often a central aspect of it. And it’s not perfect so it’s really not all that useful. Esp. since sometimes I’d come across someone who looked as dumb as a box of rocks but was actually fairly bright. And in terms of going the other way: Some people were able to “pass” as smart but really weren’t. They knew how to act, dress, behave, etc. but upon talking with them one-on-one it became obvious it was just a bit they had polished pre-college. If anything, looking/behaving “too smart” was a warning flag that they were just pretending. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/27 "2019-04-25T13:40:20Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Not the eyes _per se_ but changes in facial expression, which include a lot of fine changes around the eyes. The speed at which these take place, and in response to what. > > Around some people, I get a sub-one-second processing of “I heard that” / “I made a connection between that and something amusing or horrifying or whatever” / “I considered what I know about you and realized you no doubt just made the same connection” / “I am observing you and realize that yo unot only just made the same connection but you know that I did and furthermore you know we’re mutually aware of that and amused or mutually horrified by it”. > > With less intelligent people, all of that is slower and the upper layers are often missing. > > With still less intelligent people, the connections between things are missing entirely; they don’t get reflected in their facial expressions; they’re just hearing what’s going on right now and I’m not seeing much correlation. > It’s an impression that takes place over extended time, because (as in this example) a given person may simply not be aware of something, may not have the correlated data in their heads, and that is not a function of intelligence (although being a sponge and soaking up lots of info sort of IS), so ignorance and lack of exposure in one such event doesn’t feed a conclusion of lower intelligence but if repeated often, it sort of is, and vice versa for someone who seems to “get it” at every juncture. Bingo! This is what I experience too. Intelligent people respond in a way that indicates that they heard and comprehended what was said, and have realized the correct implications. As the intelligence decreases, that process seems to take longer- less intelligent people hear, comprehend, but take longer to realize implications, or reach the wrong conclusion. Even less smart people don’t always comprehend what’s being said exactly, much less get to the implications stage. To a degree, I think the way a person listens correlates with intelligence- a smart person is often an active listener- they’re attentively listening, and you can see the “wheels turning”, so to speak, while the less intelligent don’t seem to be as actively engaged. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/28 "2019-04-25T13:51:04Z")
> [@electronbee](#): > > I can think of someone being tired after a long day not having these micro-expressions. Or maybe just waiting for someone to finish mansplaining something? > > Possibly they are a LEO or have had to stand guard duty, which I used to do. Every once in awhile you’d get someone who would try and challenge and you could tell they were looking for some facial inflection. Having a total dead-pan reaction can have a certain effect on the challenger. So, I am very “dead-pan” to those I am not familiar with, I’ll just stare through you. That (among other things) is why it’s an impression that’s most useful when formed over time and not discerned on an immediate basis. As I said in the post to which you were responding: > [@](#): > > a given person may simply not be aware of something, may not have the correlated data in their heads, and that is not a function of intelligence It’s a clumsy barometer but not a useless one. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/29 "2019-04-26T03:58:32Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Not the eyes _per se_ but changes in facial expression, which include a lot of fine changes around the eyes. Yes, it’s a psychological illusion, studies have been done on it as I recall. People subconsciously notice & interpret all sorts of little things going on in the face and\* perceive\* it as being something they see “in the other person’s eyes”, but if you cover the face the eyes turn out to be far less expressive than people tend to think. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/30 "2019-04-26T09:24:31Z")
> [@bump](#): > > To a degree, I think the way a person listens correlates with intelligence- a smart person is often an active listener- they’re attentively listening, and you can see the “wheels turning”, so to speak, while the less intelligent don’t seem to be as actively engaged. That depends… I mean, that may be true in general, but I once had a friend who was an extremely bright, creative problem solver, but he’d get so internally absorbed when he was thinking that he’d apparently just switch off mid conversation, and be sitting there with a vacant expression, staring vaguely at you and totally failing to track the rest of what you said (if he got really absorbed, he’d even stop breathing on occasion). By contrast, I also worked with a very sweet girl who was a really active listener, it took a while to realise that she was basically responding to individual words and phrases, and totally missing the underlying concepts. First impressions were of someone actively interested and engaged with the world, in reality she should probably have been living in sheltered accommodation (I remember her getting very upset one day because her landlord was being horrible for no reason and saying she’d have to move out, and she didn’t understand why. She’d not paid any rent in three months, but she’d said she was sorry, and it wasn’t as though she’d spent it, she just didn’t have any money). ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/31 "2019-04-26T13:24:25Z")
We watched a recent episode of Seth Meyers’ show last night which was (for me) a good counterexample of how you can’t judge a person by their looks. The main guest was Adam Driver. He just looks flat out dumb. There’s something about his eyes and mouth that just scream “I’m never really all there.” It was the perfect look for his character on _Girls_. But listening to him talk tells an entirely different story. He talked about his work in plays, his charity, etc. This guy is a fairly deep thinker. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/32 "2019-04-26T15:55:07Z")
Yes, there’s truth to it. Previous thread: [Why are Stupid-Looking People Stupid?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=533662) ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/33 "2019-04-26T16:03:14Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > Yes, there’s truth to it. Previous thread: > > [Why are Stupid-Looking People Stupid?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=533662) How about you provide some actual links, since the ones _you_ provided in that thread are either dead, irrelevant or some seriously shoddy research/reporting (confusing correlation and causation for instance). ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/34 "2019-04-26T16:41:52Z")
> [@naita](#): > > How about you provide some actual links, since the ones _you_ provided in that thread are either dead, irrelevant or some seriously shoddy research/reporting (confusing correlation and causation for instance). Why the hostility? I noticed that you didn’t provide a single citation for any of the claims you made in response #16, yet you’re demanding a complete listing of updated citations from me. Isn’t that a bit hypocritical? By the way the “confirmation bias” argument you used above is just lame. Unless you have actual data refuting the argument, it reduces down to “my personal observations are somehow more valid than your personal observations.” Meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/35 "2019-04-26T16:52:36Z")
There are some interrogation techniques that rely to an extent on the direction the subject directs his/her eyes when answering. For example, looking up and to the (subject’s) left may suggest truthfulness. The idea seems to be that the subject is looking back at actual events in the past (to the left), as opposed to looking downwards or to the right with an effort at deception. I don’t know if this is malarkey or not, but my experience has generally been that people I talk with do this when they are visualizing something that requires thought. For example, if I ask someone what parts are required to build a particular device or what materials are needed for a project, they will look up and to their left as they think about it. When someone looks directly at me and replies a bit too quickly, I’m suspicious. And those suspicions are usually borne out. Again, just my personal experience. (BTW, all my friends and family tell me I do exactly this myself.) ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/36 "2019-04-26T18:37:59Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > Why the hostility? You made a fairly strong statement of support for the OP’s idea and appeared to supply a supporting link. I was disappointed that this support turned out to be an old discussion where the topic of this thread was only tangentially touched upon, and where the external supporting links were either dead, irrelevant or weak science. I apologise for letting that color the tone of my reply. > [@Surreal](#): > > I noticed that you didn’t provide a single citation for any of the claims you made in response #16, yet you’re demanding a complete listing of updated citations from me. Isn’t that a bit hypocritical? I don’t think so, let me repeat my three statements and expound on the basis for them and you can reevaluate whether you feel like challenging them: > [@](#): > > Can you make a snap judgement of someone’s intelligence based on appearance and a (possibly trivially short) single interaction and be correct more often than chance? > > Probably Actually I’m going to skip supporting that since you think this is not only probable, but that the quality of that judgement is supported by science. > [@](#): > > Could you based on this, even if you were correct less often than chance, get the idea it was a thing you could do, due to confirmation bias? > > Definitely. Confirmation bias is a well established psychological phenomenon and note that I’m not saying here the OP is correct less often than chance, I’m saying that even if he was correct less often than chance it is possible he would get the idea he wasn’t. This is why we do rigorous psychological research rather than just ask 1000 people if they think they can tell who’s smart or not by examining their eyes. > [@](#): > > Could you focus overly on the eyes as the defining factor in this confirmation bias? > > Also definitely. Again I’m just stating a well known phenomenon, offering a possible path along which a belief in an ability to judge intelligence by “a something with the eyes” might arise. I’m not saying “You can’t judge intelligence by someone’s eyes” or even “I believe you can’t judge intelligence by someone’s eyes”. All I’m doing is stating that there’s a plausible path along which such a belief might arise. Of course you wouldn’t be wrong in reading between the lines in that post that I personally think judging intelligence by appearance is likely an inaccurate tool at best, and unlikely to rely chiefly on the eyes, and that I think that should be our basic assumption until it is refuted by solid scientific evidence. But I’ve emphatically not in this thread stated there is solid evidence _against_ the possibility, nor do I have any knowledge of such evidence. > [@Surreal](#): > > By the way the “confirmation bias” argument you used above is just lame. Unless you have actual data refuting the argument, it reduces down to “my personal observations are somehow more valid than your personal observations.” Meaningless. Hopefully this rerun of my first post in the thread have made you see that I’m not in any way stating anything similar to “My personal observation is that this phenomenon is impossible”, so unless you are going to argue that confirmation bias isn’t a strong contributor to belief in ideas that have been shown not to actually exist, I feel this criticism is unfair. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/37 "2019-04-26T20:14:29Z")
I think it is common to correctly assess a person’s intelligence based on their whole face, their expressions, demeanor, overall gestalt. “Eyes” is more of a metaphor than a physical reality. Side note, I used to organize a writer’s critique group in a college town, and I could tell within a sentence or two of an initial phone conversation whether the person was any kind of a worthwhile writer or not. I was never wrong. I think the voice is an even better indicator than the face. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/38 "2019-04-26T20:38:07Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Side note, I used to organize a writer’s critique group in a college town, and I could tell within a sentence or two of an initial phone conversation whether the person was any kind of a worthwhile writer or not. I was never wrong. I think the voice is an even better indicator than the face. That’s interesting. I know a few people that write much better than they speak. My son included. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/39 "2019-04-26T21:32:08Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Side note, I used to organize a writer’s critique group in a college town, and I could tell within a sentence or two of an initial phone conversation whether the person was any kind of a worthwhile writer or not. I was never wrong. I think the voice is an even better indicator than the face. The voice, and not what they said? ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965/40 "2019-04-26T22:32:02Z")
When you meet a person who grabs you by the hand and looks you directly in the eyes, and wants to keep this eye lock going, watch their hands, they are about to rip you off somehow. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-intelligence-in-a-persons-eyes/832965.md?page=1)