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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Implied Intelligence

47 replies

wtfus3rnam3s · 20/04/2016 18:17

AIBU to assume someone smartly dressed, eloquent and articulate (ergo: a good communicator) has a good intelligence level and is well educated?

If not, why not?

If yes, define well educated.

Am thinking of someone I know, I don't want to drip feed but withholding more information until later!

OP posts:
Arfarfanarf · 20/04/2016 18:29

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TinklyLittleLaugh · 20/04/2016 18:29

No I've had dealings with too many people who talk a good tale, but in reality don't know their arse from their elbow. I never assume anything.

Well educated to me means that someone knows enough to be aware of what they don't know.

SquidgeyMidgey · 20/04/2016 18:45

'No I've had dealings with too many people who talk a good tale, but in reality don't know their arse from their elbow. I never assume anything.'

This entirely. Some people talk a good game but that's as far as it goes.

Dellarobia · 20/04/2016 18:47

Your description makes me think of an estate agent or salesman - someone who is savvy and street-smart but not necessarily genuinely intelligent or well educated.

pinkcan · 20/04/2016 18:54

Er what?

I came across a person whose father had made a generous (six figure) donation to a Russell Group university. In exchange for a) letting his thick and lazy son in and b) giving him some sort of degree. Following this "purchased" degree, this individual then got a job "via connections". The kind of job where you have a suit and communicate well (this lazy lad was very outgoing). Yes, I suppose people would think he was intelligent. He looks the part and talks the talk.

CaptainCrunch · 20/04/2016 18:57

YABU. Making assumptions about a person's intelligence based on their accent and appearance makes you a bit of a dope I'm afraid.

araiba · 20/04/2016 19:08

well educated- knowing the difference between imply and infer

Queenbean · 20/04/2016 19:12

I know some very highly educated people with serious professional jobs who have zero smarts about them

So you just can't know for sure

What's the context of this?

readytorage · 20/04/2016 19:14

tinkly hit the nail on the head.

To be educated is to be aware of what you don't know.

TiggerPiggerPoohBumWee · 20/04/2016 19:15

I know some very highly educated people with serious professional jobs who have zero smarts about them

You don't get to be highly educated and hold down a serious professional job without some kind of "smarts" about you. Maybe not a type you value, but its not possible.

Articulate and eloquent implies a certain intelligence level, yes.

Queenbean · 20/04/2016 19:19

Tigger

I disagree. I know lawyers, architects and actuaries who are seriously clever and well educated people but who, for example, don't have much common sense and lack practical skills. Ie, having no idea how to change a lightbulb or know that a boiler heats water (seriously!)

Some of these people also find it very difficult to judge certain situations and lack skills to interact with people

Perhaps part of it is such a serious logical brain but missing either emotional intelligence or practical sense - (the former a milder but similar version of Aspergers)

TiggerPiggerPoohBumWee · 20/04/2016 19:23

I disagree. I know lawyers, architects and actuaries who are seriously clever and well educated people but who, for example, don't have much common sense and lack practical skills. Ie, having no idea how to change a lightbulb or know that a boiler heats water (seriously!)

Thats not disagreeing with me though is it? If they are "seriously clever" and well educated how can they also be unintelligent and have "zero smarts"? Nobody specified "common sense" or practical skills, the question was about intelligence, undefined.
You have disagreed with yourself with the above response.

Queenbean · 20/04/2016 19:28

"Smarts" to me is being street smart or / common sense / being canny

I didn't say those people were unintelligent, I have repeatedly said they are seriously clever

WiIdfire · 20/04/2016 19:29

It works the other way too. I usually wear jeans and t-shirt, don't have any branded clothing or bags, drive a basic car and enjoy a Disney movie, but I'm very intelligent and well educated. You just wouldn't necessarily know to look...

TiggerPiggerPoohBumWee · 20/04/2016 19:32

I didn't say those people were unintelligent, I have repeatedly said they are seriously clever

Yes, but the QUESTION is about intelligence, not "street smarts", so you were answering the wrong question, and then disagreeing with me when I pointed that out.
You're trying to answer a question no-one asked.

TiggerPiggerPoohBumWee · 20/04/2016 19:33

It works the other way too. I usually wear jeans and t-shirt, don't have any branded clothing or bags, drive a basic car and enjoy a Disney movie, but I'm very intelligent and well educated

Why would you imagine that branded bags and fancy cars is any kind of barometer of intelligence, to anyone? Confused They are clearly a measure of cash, not IQ.

Queenbean · 20/04/2016 19:35

You're trying to answer a question no-one asked.

How bloody rude are you. Plenty of people on plenty of threads "answer questions which haven't been asked". The op was deliberately vague and I gave my opinion.

If you don't like it, slot off and stop trying to correct me when I've explained my point quite clearly.

AuntJane · 20/04/2016 19:37

I know a sufficient number of "educated" people to believe that education doesn't necessarily equate to intelligence.

GooseberryRoolz · 20/04/2016 19:39

Yes YABU, if only for equating dress with intelligence, but also for conflating education with intelligence. It's quite a strange question all round TBH.

HopeClearwater · 20/04/2016 19:41

What's that Dennis Skinner quote about an MP - 'the honourable number has been educated beyond his intelligence' ? Sums up the public school Establishment boys nicely.

sonjadog · 20/04/2016 19:41

I think your original question is flawed because you are making an assumption that people with a high level of intelligence are also well-educated. They are two separate things. Highly intelligent people can have had little education, and people who have had access to a good education are not always highly intelligent.

HopeClearwater · 20/04/2016 19:41

*member not number!!

KindDogsTail · 20/04/2016 19:45

Good intelligence and good education are not the same. Someone could be well educated but less intelligent than a less well educated person who is super intelligent.

A good education could make a person well informed and well trained in how to do something though.

If a person's culture and or education have taught them good (grammatical) speech, as speech is full of logic, that is definitely a bonus towards intelligence but is not all there is by any means. Also the educational opportunity to learn an instrument in particular could make a person more intelligent I believe than they would have been otherwise.

There must be so many very intelligent people who have not had the education or opportunities to develop their faculties of thinking.

That does not mean that through someone who has gone to a very good school and seems intelligent is actually stupid though. Someone could be very intelligent and also very well educated.

Slowtrain2dawn · 20/04/2016 19:45

YA probably BU
I fit your criteria but do not consider myself well educated because I don't have a degree.
I have one A level.
Or maybe that is well educated?
If so YANBU.

Herewegoagainfolks · 20/04/2016 19:46

Hmm, the "articulate" is a better signifier for intelligence or education than the "smartly dressed" part.

Academics for example aren't known for their smart dress sense.

It's not an unreasonable question though. We all make assumptions based on externals.

I know a very lovely lady. Very well dressed. I know she was privately educated.

She's a SAHM now but did hold a professional role previously.

I've known her for years through our DC. I just kind of assumed she was intelligent.

I had occasion to spend far more time than usual with her (long train journey) and our conversation veered off from our usual topics of children, families etc.

I was quite horrified and embarrassed to realise that she couldn't keep up with the conversation between the group. She's not stupid, and as I say she's extremely lovely but she wasn't managing at all, she wasn't following the argument let alone able to contribute to it.

I gently moved the discussion to less difficult ground but spent a couple of days being retrospectively embarrassed that I hadn't noticed earlier.

Completely my own fault, I made assumptions based on her externals not on anything she'd ever said to me.

I'm desperately hoping I haven't been inadvertently rude for the last 5 years. She still seems to like me so hopefully not.

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