Implied Intelligence

[wtfus3rnam3s]

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!

through

Mind you, DH is a salesman, wears a sharp suit, has considerable charm and "gift of the gab", combined with a working class northern accent. He is occasionally dismissed and patronised by the academics he sells to. However he probably has as good a STEM degree as any of them, enough brains to have done a doctorate if he'd chosen to and considerably more technical expertise in the specialist technology he sells.

He's a salesman because he makes a shed load of money and gets to choose his own hours being self employed, not because he's a thick wide boy.

Tigger - I mentioned labels because the OP asked about smartly dressed and I was explaining that I am not particularly smart. Although it is not always the case, most people would agree that a man in a Hugo Boss suit is 'smarter' than a shiny polyester Primark one, no?

How long are you going to withhold the extra info for OP?

You can have intelligence without education. You can only know their level of education if you ask, though. It won't necessarily be down to accent but being articulate would be a clue

I would probably also make that assumption, yes.
Probably shouldn't, but probably would!

My question was based on something my significant other said to me earlier after a school meeting. That I'm seen as articulate, eloquent and intelligent (within school too based on what DC have said) - yet I'm always scruffy and don't hold a degree.

I'd always inferred you needed a degree as "proof".

Intelligence isn't the same thing as well educated though is it?

YANBU to assume that someone who is well presented, articulate and communicates well is well educated and possibly intelligent too BUT YABU to assume that if someone is scruffy and a poor communicator that this implied a lack of intelligence or a lack of education

I once made the mistake of watching part if an episode of 'Made in Chelsea'. It appears you can be articulate, well-dressed, and expensively educated, but have no apparent intelligence.

Well the scruffy part is completely irrelevant. How you dress is in no way related to how clever you are.

Of course you don't need a degree as 'proof' that you are intelligent!

There are plenty of very clever people whose paths didn't taken them via a University.

Educated doesn't have to mean uni either - there's plenty of education to be had for free with a library ticket.

AS someone once said, the advantage of a British public school education is that you have to know someone really well for around 10 years until you realize how thick they are.

AS someone once said, the advantage of a British public school education is that you have to know someone really well for around 10 years until you realize how thick they are.

I'm sure he's right.

Don't let lack of a degree bother you.

caroldecker that's very true

I knew some public school boys at the university I went to. Once you started talking to some of them (not all) about, for instance, politics or current affairs, you realised how thin the veneer of intelligence was. All Tim Nice But Dim.

Quite a few public schools have difficult entrance exams and some of the students who go to them can be truly brilliant.

I think you are mixing up various skills and equating them with intelligence.

Well spoken doesn't mean intelligent.

Well dressed doesn't mean intelligent.

Aunt Jade's Made In Chelsea post is right on the money.

People can be really intelligent, amazing at their very difficult, demanding professional job, and be nervous about talking about it in public/company.

'Difficult entrance exams' or a lovely big cheque.

I believe (on the basis of no evidence whatsoever) that people with an extensive vocabulary are intelligent.

I think this because the development of language skills seems so coupled to developmental advances in babies/children. And because people I've met seem to follow this pattern (confirmation bias probably).

Clothes are zero indicator of intelligence.

'Difficult entrance exams' or a lovely big cheque.
Difficult entrance exams and a lot of work before..

I don't think you need a degree to show intelligence.... There are plenty of folk with poor degrees who really don't seem that able...
I have a good degree/professional qualifications...people indicate I seem very 'clever'... But, by far my cleverest friend... Seriously she can trounce me at everything, 'all' she has is 10 grade A o levels... Before people get to know her they assume she is thick because of her modest job...

I fit right into the "educated beyond intelligence" or perhaps 'lucky enough to get an excellent education' is a less bitter and condescending way of putting it. I went to a quite a well known public school which, while not always equating to an excellent education, did in my case.

I'm not especially quick but, given a little time, can work out intelligent and logical arguments, solutions or what have you.

I have 2 Masters degrees (one from Cambridge) and a posh voice - sometimes equated with eloquence. I dress 'for the job I want to have' and yes, I think it helps to imply intelligence. I think my degrees show I'm not stupid by any means but a big part of getting them was the attitude I was brought up with; "of course you can achieve it, if you want to".

I try to imply intelligence professionally and it hasn't held me back.

In reference to the mentions of vocabulary, my first degree was in linguistics and I've often thought I'd love to research the correlation between the way people use an apparently extensive vocabulary when trying to appear intelligent online and their actual intelligence. The ones who sound like Joey when he uses a thesauras when writing his speech I suspect are no where near as clever as they'd like to imagine!