Is it possible to see intelligence in the eyes of a person?

[Rome96]

For instance, I can usually tell if a person is intelligent by their eyes, intelligent people (in my experience, not saying it's a fact) usually have more intense stares. There's more to it, I can't really explain it, but so far I've always been able to ascertain whether a person is intelligent or not from their eyes before I speak to them. Is this something you guys notice as well? Maybe it's just me trying to read too much into things. What else do you find hints on the personality of a person? What assumptions do you make based on appearance (aside from the obvious ones)?

I'm sorry for all the threads I've been creating lately, I haven't left my house in a week and I'm getting increasingly bored.

 

[Etheri]

No.

My intuition says intelligence is too complex to be (completely) betrayed through external factors such as eyes. It could be an indicator, but it won't ever be an accurate representation.

 

[Hawkeye]

I don't think my avatar reveals my level of intelligence.

 

[Nick]

Your Eyes Betray You.

I believe there's something special with the eyes, and maybe a correlation between our us INTPs lack the majority of eye contact, but when we do hold a gaze, it's much more meaningful and connects us with the other person on a much more deeper level.

I've always had a thought that we lack eye contact and only use it when we intend to direct a point, to strike a thought/meaning home to the other person.

 

[Lucifer van Satan]

Hmm.
Intelligence is hardly measured even with testing, a mere eye-scan is pointless.
Facial expressions in some situations are a different matter. Even then, this would only imply their preferences but not possibly their capabilities, though a small correlation is almost certain.

 

[Hadoblado]

If type is discernible from appearance, and intelligence is correlated with type, then there might be something behind your claim?

Also, intense stares imply intense perceptual effort. When I stare intensely it's because I don't understand, and am trying really hard to remedy that. If this trait is generalisable to others, then that implies people who stare more think more, as opposed to accepting what is in front of them at face value.

It's fun to think about, but I doubt you'd be able to get very good results in a lab.

 

[WALKYRIA]

Of course, intelligence is in the eyes of the beholder .
Nope, seriously, don't know about the eyes, but science has proven that INTP's tend to be ectomorphic( thin) because their brains use a lot of glucose and thus the rest of the body is'nt supplied anymore? The other more important thing is that there is a strong correlation between beauty and IQ. That is a fact.


For the eyes, it might be true(indirectly !). But I think generally, the body language of intelligent rationals people is more refined- and exude arrogance- more so than that of lesser intelligence. The air of arrogance in the general presentation of intuitives might be translatable in the eyez.

 

[Cognisant]

Theory of mind I reckon, just as a person's posture and stance can convey their mood the way someone uses their eyes may clue us into what they're thinking or how much thinking is going on, in my experience extroverts have bright/alert eyes, they watch you as they talk to you so they can adapt on the fly, introverts on the other hand, especially NTs tend to go blank intermittently, visual thinkers are especially obvious by how their eyes tend to focus on a neutral spot, that "staring into space" look (about 2-3ft in front of them).

Pay attention to it next time you talk to someone.

 

[NSINTP]

My mother used to tell me that my eyes expressed great intellect, which was her explanation as to why my 12th grade english teacher called to let her know I was sleeping in her class, and was her contention that I should be in her AP class. The funny thing was that rarely did I do my own work unless absolutely necessary.

 

[WoLong]

It's fairly evident that the behavior of someone's eyes can betray their level of intelligence. Whether the shape or appearance of someone's eyes is correlated with one's intelligence is less clear. There are various genes that simultaneously influence personality and eye features, so such a correlation is possible.

 

[OrcaNerd]

I think it is. Intelligent people often have a "hard" appearance. There are exceptions, of course....people with hard lives (drug addiction, criminal activity) come to mind.

 

[Grayman]

My personal description of the eyes is analysing. They may or may not be brilliant people but anyone who has these eyes at least does a lot of thinking.

 

[6125]

I think absolutely yes, the eyes, the expression. Now if you take a picture of just the eyes and isolate from the face, maybe not so much. When i meet a smart introvert i can usually tell in a few seconds. Couple that with their reactions to statements, etc. The eyes are really where information is digested, they are a window into your mind/reasoning process. So you can tell if someone is actually intelligent or just knowledgeable by how they process information. I do have my biases though, and tend to give introverts more credit for being intelligent than they deserve, and extroverted types less credit. I have been more letdown by assuming intelligence in someone than by assuming they are dumb, which i find to be much easier to do. But seriously, it is so easy to pick out the very smart or very dumb people for me.

 

[Aerl]

I am not sure if it's intelligence that is measured that way...

Rolling eyes, rotating a head like an owl, walking, scratching your head, holding a chin,
looking up into the sky or into horizon and coming back with an answer.

And depending on an answer and the way it was processed, there is a hint to ones
capability.

 

[peoplesuck]

Blue eyes are linked to intelligence.

 

[StevenM]

Don't forget that there are many types of intelligence. Extroverted feelers, for instance, may have a high level of emotional intelligence, and have a wealth of interpersonal experiences.

 

[Decaf]

Depends on what you consider intelligence. IQ measures abstract pattern recognition and certain types of knowledge. Calling that intelligence is a bit excessive, but its not nothing. I would think that using eye behavior would likely measure another type of intelligence, but by no means something general.

If you consider an "intense gaze" indicative of intelligence, then you're prioritizing the ability to process external stimuli while taking it in. I would call that extraverted perception, which just so happens to be an INTP's auxiliary function (Introverted Thinking, Extraverted Intuition). Some people process their perceptions after the fact using introverted perception (e.g., daydreamers, absent minded professors), but valuing one over the other would be jumping the gun a bit. You also have to assume certain things about their health, energy level, personal interest in what's going on, etc.

While I hesitate to call it measuring intelligence, it's very possible that you're gauging the likelihood that someone is intellectually compatible with yourself. INTPs like to discuss possibilities externally while we make conclusions internally. It can be frustrating talking to someone who make conclusions externally (extraverted judging), and we often react to those people poorly regardless of their actual intelligence level.

 

[The Gopher]

Most people think they can tell if someone is trustworthy or not by looking at someone. What most people perceive and believe and what is actually the case doesn't match up a large amount of the time. I assume it's similar with intelligence.

 

[Pyropyro]

Hmm... I don't see intelligence in a person's eye. Perhaps the only time that I found this to be true is when I had a meeting with an aged music composer. His eyes were old but there's a piercing, assertive look in them.

 

[k9b4]

PLEASE - whenever you use the word "intelligence" provide a definition. Otherwise everyone is going to misinterpret you because everyone has their own little idea of what intelligence is

 

[Ex-User (9062)]

No, that's magical thinking.

 

[Latte]

PLEASE - whenever you use the word "intelligence" provide a definition. Otherwise everyone is going to misinterpret you because everyone has their own little idea of what intelligence is

That's not necessarily a big deal. The main tryst of the question is whether people think they can distinguish aspects of mindstates of people from visual information (eyes being the focus in this case), in a manner sufficient to derive specific enough parameters for how the person's mind can function, to from that again derive whether that mind fits with their definitions of varying degrees (and potentially types) of intelligence.

As such it is more about whether people mean they have the ability to distinguish between cognitive capabilities of people based on certain visual information rather than the question of whether they can measure someone's intelligence specifically. What cognitive capabilities being synonymous with "intelligence" being of lesser import.

 

[ENTP lurker]

I don't know about that.

The Ne detachment is viewed as form of intelligence? Or concentrated Ni style?


People view me as insanely intelligent. Am I? Nope. I can pull out pretty cool stuff in academic way. My IQ is not very high. I have learned to use my lateral combinatory thinking to my advantage (where ENTPs are supposed to be super good at). I leave the computing for T-doms.
Anyways the IQ is poor metric where it does not deal with disabilities. My mind is all over the place so concentrated execution and speed (which IQ tests value) is not my strongest area.

I know a bit less successfull INTP (never left his home). His work is pretty S heavy and S people view that he is dumb. Not at all as a whole. He just never had a drive to actualize his potentials. He is probaply quite dumb at his current job.

 

[Ex-User (8886)]

I don't know if I can see inteligence in someone's eyes, but I can see stiupidness

 

[Variform]

Eyes reveal a presence. An awareness. You can see that. But if it is IQ? Could be. I dunno. Some eyes are vacant.

 

[TheManBeyond]

Fuck it, i'm gonna give it a try...
It depends on the person that sees, if you see someone at the street wearing x kind of clothes you'll asociate his wear with his personality and when you see the eyes you'll go sexy eyes, for example.
If the person is naked you'll see his hairdo / complexion, etc and you'll say, she is sexy, nerdy or a bitch.
If you could only see the eyes, you'll focus on the shape of them and not on the actual pupil and even if you only can see the pupil, they'll only remind you of some person you knew before and you'll go this one looks intelligent, dumb or whatever. I dare you, photoshop some pictures of close ups on eyes, by a bunch of types/characters and make 1-10 test to a group of people, i bet there's gonna be 0 relation between character's IQs and the answers survey respondent made. Even if you're a strong feeler and literally can see/sense/whatever mistical, it only will shine the way you want it to shine. It depends on how your life has teached things, so it's up to you and not really on the eyes of the people.

 

[Variform]

Maybe it is a body language issue as well as dress.

 

[HAL9000]

I 50% agree with the OP. I definitely think I can recognise a person's intelligence just by looking at them. The other 50% comes when they talk or act, after which I immediately have a measure of who they are. First impressions count for everything, in my opinion.

Generally I do find myself judging a person's character just from looking at them, and to be honest I'm not often far off the mark.

 

[walfin]

No. For example, many autistics avoid eye contact and thus don't have an intense stare, but they are not unintelligent.

 

[Variform]

One always assumes the neurotypical view first.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

"Bright" eyes connotate eagerness
"Intense" eyes connotate power
"Unfocused" eyes connotate disinterest or anxiety

A bright eyed person you might think is intelligent because they seem interested in the subject matter, where intelligence becomes mixed for attraction.

An intense eyed person might seem as if they know more than you, or know something you don't, which might make you feel (intellectually) vulnerable. Intelligence is mixed for intimidation/authority.

People with unfocused eyes might be seen as having personally troubling thoughts, evoking pity or their seeming disinterest might be taken for intellectual arrogance.


...

 

[Minuend]

For instance, I can usually tell if a person is intelligent by their eyes, intelligent people (in my experience, not saying it's a fact) usually have more intense stares. There's more to it, I can't really explain it, but so far I've always been able to ascertain whether a person is intelligent or not from their eyes before I speak to them. Is this something you guys notice as well? Maybe it's just me trying to read too much into things. What else do you find hints on the personality of a person? What assumptions do you make based on appearance (aside from the obvious ones)?

I'm sorry for all the threads I've been creating lately, I haven't left my house in a week and I'm getting increasingly bored.

OKay, silly question, but it happens that I take things a bit literally:

Are we talking about the eyes ONLY. I assume we aren't talking about the eyeballs alone, so perhaps eyes and eyes area, like:

Or are we including eyebrows:

OR are we talking about eyes in context of the entire face and expression?

 

[Omnivorous Ocelot]

No.

 

[Koosy]

I don't think so. Might be impossible to detect some peoples intelligence, since some are not willing to share a small bit of their thoughts.

 

[Reluctantly]

I've noticed that some people are more inclined to take a moment to read someone or a situation, whereas others aren't. Their eyes become fixated, but momentarily show an expression in their eyes that looks glazed over. And it's funny in a kindred sort of way because I know what they are doing, since it's almost my natural mode of thinking.

 

[Cherry Cola]

For instance, I can usually tell if a person is intelligent by their eyes, intelligent people (in my experience, not saying it's a fact) usually have more intense stares. There's more to it, I can't really explain it, but so far I've always been able to ascertain whether a person is intelligent or not from their eyes before I speak to them. Is this something you guys notice as well? Maybe it's just me trying to read too much into things. What else do you find hints on the personality of a person? What assumptions do you make based on appearance (aside from the obvious ones)?

I'm sorry for all the threads I've been creating lately, I haven't left my house in a week and I'm getting increasingly bored.

No. You can't tell either you just think you can because confirmation bias.

 

[manideepa]

An intense stare generally means the person is a ni user or perhaps ne. An ne dominant person generally shifts his eyes a lot involuntary. When an entp zones out, you find his eyes moving around. When an intp zones out, its a long dull stare at a particular point. Intjs too stare at a particular point but their stares are more intense. Intps too have those moments of intense staring when they are using ne.
Perhaps you find intuitive types more intelligent in the sense you value intuition more( I do as well ). I have found that I can easily make out an intutive from his facial expressions and body language in general.

 

[DaDaMan]

I think judging a person by the eyes alone would result in a premature\incorrect assessment of the person, but taking the eyes and other facial features into consideration as a whole would result in a more complete assessment.

I think it is very possible to judge a persons character intelligence etc. by assessing their physical features, particularly the face. I do it all the time with a very high degree of accuracy.

 

[Grayman]

You can determine awareness in a persons eyes. This can play a small role in intelligence but that depends on the whether they live their world more externally or internally.

 

[Creeping Death]

There's a video from DNews which claims that males with eyes more apart from each other were usually more intelligent and those with eyes closer together not so much, apparently the distance between the eyes wasn't correlated with intelligence for females.

 

[WhatWasThat]

Most people think they can tell if someone is trustworthy or not by looking at someone. What most people perceive and believe and what is actually the case doesn't match up a large amount of the time. I assume it's similar with intelligence.

I approve this message.

 

[Artsu Tharaz]

I agree with the thing about people having an intense stare are probably more intelligent, or have something about them that I like. The eyes are the gateway to the soul, as it is said.

 

[justAndroid]

I don't think eyes alone, but all wrinkles and shape of face around the eyes. Emotional states and other things which causes mimical facial movements - if they are often repeated they leave permanent shapes on our faces.

So you actually can't see intelligence, but the fact that person thinks-a-lot.

 

[alcoves]

I made an account with this form for the sole purpose of posting this comment. Why this form? Well, when you do a Google search of eyes and intelligence this is one of the first sites that is shown (thus I felt an obligation of sorts).

But, to answer the question of 'OP' as if the eyes can discern one's intellectual ability... the answer is unequivocally, yes they can! (...but also anything about a person could also show this, though the eyse are pretty darn good... I can more or less guess either: 1) below avg, 2) avg, 3) above avg, 4) much about avg intelligence just by looking at a picture of someone (with a few exceptions of course e.g. if they were drunk or something or the picture was taken in a high emotional situation unknown to me). When I meet someone I can narrow their IQ down (it's a subconscious thing I don't think about) to the ten's place of most general IQ assessments out there, and I can usually list (if someone asked, though why would anyone)... list people in a room by IQ only (never tell someone they are avg or below IQ, that would be rude).

You do not have to take my word for it, it's simple anatomy/physiology.... the eyes are controlled by 3 independent cranial nerves along with the optic nerve which is the sensory only nerve. Therefore, they are 4! cranial nerves solely dedicated to the function of the eye; these cranial nerves directly innervate the brain making what's going on in the brain readily apparent by viewing the eyes.


An aside, some people here are just smart enough to be mean and from my cognitive ability tower I see that as childish (just because you haven't noticed something in the world don't hate on those that can by downplaying it and being rude!). Also, the login process could use some work on this site! (took me a few times for some reason, and there should probably be a 'create account' button on the log in screen)

And finally I wouldn't get too wrapped up into the MBTI assessments... it is a crude way of lumping people together, yes they do that, but in my opinion they're probably a 120 different personality types repeated through the Western World or at least the United States that I'm familiar with, e.g. you go on a business trip and meet someone and think... you are just like my friend from X city. I'll try to post a picture of me to show the eyes if I can figure that out...

 

[alcoves]

Me... Look at the eyes. Then look at other photos of people and look at their eyes.


Best,
MB

ps. be nice guys

 

[TheManBeyond]

yes, Einstein and me share same iq for example

[BIMG]http://s.libertaddigital.com/fotos/noticias/albert-einstein1.jpg[/BIMG]

[BIMG]http://i.imgur.com/d3C5Z4y.jpg[/BIMG]

 

[Cheeseumpuffs]

no.


next question, please.

 

[QuickTwist]

I believe so. Intelligent people have more relaxed eyes IMO. they often have their eyelids resting lower on their eyes than not intelligent people. Alert eyes mean you are trying to pay attention more closely to what is going on around you and are possibly having difficulty drawing conclusions so they are straining in a way.

 

[0neKiwi]

Hmm... Consider those whose facial expressions change when in formal and informal situations. How would you be able to tell their intelligence at a glance?

Speaking of facial features, you could have a shocked expression on your face all day. That doesn't mean you're actually shocked all day (well, probably not). Thus, I'm assuming that you are looking at the natural facial expression of a person. (How can you tell if it is natural or not? Tug an infj in front of you to analyze their face?)

Even then, there are many factors other than facial expressions that contribute to intelligence. I don't think the correlation is significant enough between eyes (and surrounding areas) and intelligence to use it in real life.

Of course, you could organize an experiment on it. Variables would be hard to control, however, and the results would probably be hard to generalize.

 

[AndyC]

I read somewhere that the activity of someone's eyes is normally emulating the activity in their mind because of the close connection between their eyes and brain. The eyes are quite often also used as a tool of communication and stimulation in intelligent individuals when in the process of perceiving what is their environment, normally in conversation. I like to think of one kind of eye behavior as another form of Ti hand activity in my own experience, because in conversation, they may be used as a substitute of other parts of the body to help them in the process of using their cognitive functions.
I think you may also be referring to wisdom, for one does not always need to be intelligent to be wise, and with wisdom comes a charismatic display of grasping the information in conversation using the eyes, or simply a sense of peace or other emotion that may come with wisdom and be portrayed through the eyes.