do you judge how smart or dumb a person by the way his/her look?

[dogtree]

If you do, tell me. how do you know that a person is dumb or smart such as beard, race, the way person talk, etc..

 

[Taemin]

Oh no, I don't think that how someone looks determines anything at all. I've talked to some people who look nearly like they're homeless, but they were very intelligent. I can't say that I'm someone who judges in that sort of way. I know there are stereotypes for everything, and that some people literally meet them (I'm sure I meet a couple myself), but I try not to judge books by their cover.

Same thing applies to people online. That person with the "InuyashaFanNyan89388823" username could be a successful attorney that speaks 5 different languages. Never know. xD

 

[Poki]

I'll only be able to judge the person once I get to know him/her.

 

[Hiatus]

I always try my best not to, and am pretty successful at it. When I was younger, though, I used to; that's just how my brain worked, and for some people, I'm sure it still does. Looks do help explain people's situation from time to time, but in my opinion, intelligence shouldn't be related to these things in any way. Outside of a house may look dull or beautiful, but it could be a completely different story inside, and we should be able to apply that to pretty much everything.

 

[dogtree]

my brain automatically judge a person about how smart and dumb he/she because of the look. Most of time i am right. i dont know why my brain behavior that way....i try my best
to give a person benefit of doubt.. but it is difficult...

 

[antemortem]

I don't judge people based on that so much as I used to, mainly because one of my friend's fathers has a bunch of piercings, gauges, and tattoos and grows his hair to absurd lengths then cuts it randomly and wears odd hats and shoes, and you'd expect him to either be incredibly dumb or ignorant when you speak to him but he's actually one of the smartest men I've ever met. He's into astrophysics, too. :b So it's probably not best for everyone to be judged by their cover, so to speak, but it's not wrong to do it either: you just lose out on a valuable opportunity to become acquaintances with someone potentially inspiring.

 

[Xanathos]

I don't judge just by the look. Of course everyone will have something whose makes you hesitating or perhaps quite impressed, afraid or whatever no matter what it is. Even in the Internet, sometimes people have weird avatars but when you chat they reveal themselves as kind people.
But I speak to everyone, cause I think being open-minded is the key of the futur. I don't stab people even if I disagree with what they do or what they think.

 

[Raine]

It's not the looks that matter, more the level of sophistication when they open their mouth and what behaviour they choose to display. Hitler was an intelligent man, even if I disagreed with his agenda. You not so much. Behaviour wise, you could be an A+ school student but if you do something stupid like running across train tracks or riding a bike at night without high visibility gear you're an idiot.

With regards to race if you took IQ/academic results you would find a general pattern of Asians > White people > minority groups. That's not because they're less intelligent, perhaps certain cultures don't value what the IQ test and school caters to, or they are at a disadvantage at performing to their full potential. It's an inaccurate as hell system, if there are others I'd like to hear about them. None of us are born equal but I wonder if some humans just have a little candle burning up there compared to the mighty bonfires of some folks.

Today I saw two girls that were definitely younger than me in rather revealing clothes pushing a stroller. Based on their attractive appearance, language and situation (having a child far too young) I thought they must be idiots. Bimbos with more beauty than brains. It happens a lot in my district, we are notorious for having a toxic culture with no family values, parents on the dole not giving two ♥♥♥♥s about what their kids are up to. It's pretty moronic, you can blame poor choices on lack of opportunity, social inequality, poor parenting, all of that stuff, still I think intelligence must come into play somewhere when you see something dumb.

Personally, different situations call for different levels of "intelligence" in terms of behaviour. For instance, even though the language I used throughout the posts here on the community are, in my opinion, relatively "intelligent" in terms of the words I use frequently, there are numerous times when outside of the online network that I speak more casually, but not much of a difference to be honest. Regardless, the latter has the potentiality to come off as being unintelligent if people judge others by their scope of vocabulary.

In regards to race, I can vouch for the Asian culture placing significantly more importance on being successful academically because it means happiness in the long-run. My parents are constantly reminding me that in Canada, people need a degree or some higher level education completed in order to have a life worth living, which I understand. And that sense of pressure forces us, the children, to study without fail. But my parents, having lived in Canada for the past ~30 years, aren't as strict as other Asian parents if they were to be compared. They've adapted to the Canadian culture, and standards so I probably have less pressure to succeed than other Asian individuals my age. Regardless, I'm on the fence in terms IQ, whether it's implicit or whether people can increase their IQ through constant learning and/or cognitive stimulation.

I know what you mean by seeing teenagers younger than myself already pregnant. It does make me question their "intelligence" from time-to-time, but it's more that people make bad choices all the time thus it doesn't necessarily mean that they're less intelligent than others who aren't young parents.

 

[Corvus of the Black Night]

lol no because that's ♥♥♥♥ing stupid

Some of the most intelligent people I know look "archetypal stupid" because of some facial issue or a sensory problem. Doesn't mean they're stupid. Those mofos are smarter than me.

If you act like an idiot, you are an idiot. If you act like an intelligent person, you are an intelligent person. End of story.

 

[Kanzler]

I don't usually judge somebody's intelligence from the way they look, more so how ♥♥♥♥♥y/friendly they are. But keep in mind that a lot of people have resting ♥♥♥♥♥y face. Still, it's up to them to smile more xD

To avoid not answering the OP, I'll say that I'd like to think I'm able to judge somebody by their looks alone, but most of the time, it's probably a conclusion I made in hindsight after I realize some other fact about them (like how they sound when they open their mouths etc etc). I think it's very rare that we judge somebody's intelligence from looks alone.

 

[Ephemeral Euphoria]

Can I say that every person I come across strikes me as an idiot upon the first glance?

 

[Blu·Ray]

Would you imagine that Stephen Hawking is actually one of the smartest people in the world? Don't judge a book by its cover!

 

[Vix Axiom]

I judge by character, speech patterns and their morals.

Even then these don't accurately describe someone as a person.

 

[Raine]

I judge by character, speech patterns and their morals.

Care to elaborate on how morals influence your judgment of an individual's intelligence? Unless you're talking about judging someone in a more general sense, and not their intelligence.

 

[Vix Axiom]

Care to elaborate on how morals influence your judgment of an individual's intelligence? Unless you're talking about judging someone in a more general sense, and not their intelligence.

If someone thinks religion is stupid and doesn't give a legitimate reason outside of personal animosity then there's no room to debate with them on that subject.

If someone thinks religion is stupid because of the horrendous actions that it has provoked over millennia and provides several examples of such then I may be inclined to listen and agree/disagree on certain points they make.

Simply said: if someone has an opinion that they are open about, they should at least first have some knowledge on the subject.

From my experience most atheists win arguments because they are educated and have several citations of religious texts that often contradict themselves. Of course this doesn't mean atheists can't be hypocritical as well.

 

[twocows]

You can usually safely assume some things based on appearance, but I don't think intelligence is one of them unless someone's wearing a shirt that says "Twilight fan." In that case, you can safely assume that person is of significantly lower intelligence.

Bad jokes aside, you can learn a lot about someone about how they choose to present themselves, offline or online. Purely physical features, especially ones that aren't really within our ability to change or change easily, those usually don't tell you anything important (certain scars might, though, so that's not a universal law). But other things, sure. I have to disagree with what Yuri said earlier in the thread: I think you can learn something about the kind of person someone is just from something as simple as a screen name. Now, obviously you're not going to learn everything about the person from that, or even a whole lot. But it can tell you something, I think.

 

[Raine]

If someone thinks religion is stupid and doesn't give a legitimate reason outside of personal animosity then there's no room to debate with them on that subject.

If someone thinks religion is stupid because of the horrendous actions that it has provoked over millennia and provides several examples of such then I may be inclined to listen and agree/disagree on certain points they make.

Simply said: if someone has an opinion that they are open about, they should at least first have some knowledge on the subject.

From my experience most atheists win arguments because they are educated and have several citations of religious texts that often contradict themselves. Of course this doesn't mean atheists can't be hypocritical as well.

Hm, while I can understand where you're coming from in terms of atheists, and their lack of reasoning in believing in a certain religion, that subject matter was different from what I was referring to by morals. Unless that was what you meant by morals, in which case you probably should have said religion instead. Religion is a touchy subject for most, and I'm not too knowledgeable in that field so I will avoid going any further than this simply to avoid looking like an idiot.

Anyway, back to the topic of morals, everyone has a different sense of what they deem as "good," and "bad." For instance, going back to the whole concept of young pregnant teenagers that PervertedPikachu mentioned, trying to put myself in their perspective, they might have had an idea that it was morally wrong (based on societal standards) to have engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse at a young age, which resulted in them facing the consequences. But like I said previously, their intelligence has nothing to do with their sense of making bad choices. Sometimes people are inherently horrible at making the "right" choices (I myself am one as I've made terrible life choices, academically, in the past), and dig themselves into a hole. They could have made "smarter" choices, but what can you do when your desire and/or will to continue engaging in such an act outweighs your conscience?

 

[Sydian]

The irony here absolutely stuns me. It really does. Anyway, I don't think you can look at someone and gage their intelligence from that. Honestly, if you do that, you have a bigger problem than the person you're looking at and judging.

 

[Star-Lord]

Devil's advocate: Is it unreasonable if I looked at someone who doesn't make an active effort to take care of themselves/contribute in any way to be less intelligent than someone who actually does contribute and takes care of themselves physically?

I mean really if I had to choose two people to hire solely upon first glance I'd think that the one who presented himself professionally would be a hell of a lot smarter than the one who dressed like a slob. Would I be wrong? Maybe. Is the judgement wrong? That's a more interesting question.

 

[Sir Codin]

Devil's advocate: Is it unreasonable if I looked at someone who doesn't make an active effort to take care of themselves/contribute in any way to be less intelligent than someone who actually does contribute and takes care of themselves physically?

That depends. There are other factors that contribute to someone not taking care of themselves than just intelligence level. Apathy, lifestyle choice, depression...these are a few I can think of off the top of my head.

As for contribution, I'm not sure what you mean by this. Do you mean that if the person is just being plain lazy and not contributing anything to society? I don't think laziness can really be a gauge for intelligence; I'm sure there are plenty of brilliant people out there who happen to be lazy.

I mean really if I had to choose two people to hire solely upon first glance I'd think that the one who presented himself professionally would be a hell of a lot smarter than the one who dressed like a slob. Would I be wrong? Maybe. Is the judgement wrong? That's a more interesting question.

Someone who represents themselves professionally tend to do a much better job at representing themselves to the public as a reliable employee and this is usually what employers look for; the unfortunate truth is that appearances do matter in the eyes of the public. It doesn't matter how qualified you are for performing the duties of the job (sadly), if you look like a bum the general public usually doesn't put much trust in you.