When we were kids, growing up, our parents would tell us to clean our rooms or tell us not to be messy. They would tell us to go to bed early, to use proper language, and we were scolded or grounded for not doing so. There are studies that show people who tend to be messy or go to bed late and use foul language are smarter/have a higher IQ than the average person. 

Unorganized

Having a tidy desk looks better than having a messy desk, but is it?  For example, people judge too quickly, when they see a tidy person they tend to think that the person is successful and would think otherwise from the person who isn’t, thinking that people with messy desks are clumsy and can’t get things done. This also brings in the stereotype of “smart people.” When we think of a smart person, we picture someone who is focused, tidy, good communicator, has good vocabulary, etc. This is more or less what we think, but we might be wrong about some of this. Studies show that people who tend to be messy may be smarter than the average joe. This claim is backed up by scientists from the University of Minnesota. When seeing a messy desk or backpack that is filled with papers, people tend to ask how they can find things when everything is scattered around like that. But it turns out that this sparks that person’s creativity because they know what is where and can find it easily. It turns out, to your mother’s disappointment, that a messy desk is a sign of a brilliant mind. 

Going to Bed Late 

We’ve all heard that people who are successful wake up early. This later turned out to be a lie that grownups believed; there was a study that debunked this.  Some people are night owls and others are just night thinkers which are two different things. Night owls may be productive with their time who stays up late into the night reading, writing, working on their computer or tinkering. If you’re just a night thinker or your brain just tends to flood with thought when you’re laying at night, which can make it hard for them to sleep. Having a busy day can fill our brains with information, which can sometimes be hard for our brains to process and the only time that we have is when we’re in bed ready to sleep. It might all be signs of depression or anxiety but this is for another article. According to The Independent, night owls have higher IQs. A study was conducted by researchers and nearly 1000 students in the University of Madrid. Although night owls scored less in academic scores than morning types, around 8% less. 

Foul Language

We’ve been told to use proper language wherever we go. Studies have shown many benefits to swearing alot. Form signs of intelligence, honesty, creativity and pain tolerance. Timothy Jay, a professor at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, who has been studying swearing for more than 4 decades, did a study in 2015. The study involved people to come up with words with a specific letter that was given to them. The result was that people who swear a lot came up with more words than those who didn’t, meaning their vocabulary is better. Jay said “to the degree that language is correlated with intelligence” and people that are good at language are good at generating a swearing vocabulary. He also added that it’s linked with social skills. Knowing when and where it is right to swear. like “picking the right clothes for the right occasion. That’s a pretty sophisticated social tool.” 

In the end this is not a ‘How To’ article, and I’m not saying that you do this and that to have BigBrain. All I’m trying to say is that the studies listed above involved people that did these things like being unorganized, went to bed late and/or sweared a lot, whereas people that didn’t have to force themselves to do so just comes natural to them.