Being a genius isn't as simple as being smart or having a high IQ. While intelligence is, of course, a prerequisite of genius status, there are other things at play here – including creativity, self-awareness, and an innate ability to ask questions few others have ever asked.
Geniuses have a denser concentration of mini-columns than the rest of the population – it seems that they simply pack more in. Mini-columns are sometimes described as the brain's 'microprocessors', powering the thought process of the brain. Research shows that geniuses have fewer dopamine receptors in the thalamus.
A genius is someone who is very intelligent and usually excels in one specific area (science or mathematics, for example). They generally have extraordinary creative abilities, which allow them to look outside the box and view things in a way that the majority of us aren't capable of.
Geniuses are both born and made. While genetics can explain up to 75% of variations in IQ levels, factors like socioeconomic status and home environment decide whether a person achieves their full genetic IQ potential.
Research has shown that there is a high correlation between being intelligent and socially anxious. The higher your IQ, the higher the chance your social apprehension is higher than usual. Of course, that doesn't mean that your social anxiety should be classified as a disorder.
That's about one in every 250 people. But one leading researcher in the 1940s suggested that a genius should have an IQ over 180. That's about one in every 2 million people. There is no one definition of genius.
The 12 Qualities of Genius
To provide a structure for educators that can make the concept of genius useful, I've expanded its meaning to include 12 basic qualities: curiosity, playfulness, imagination, creativity, wonder, wisdom, inventiveness, vitality, sensitivity, flexibility, humor, and joy.
Adaptability: High IQ people are flexible and willing to try new things and explore different ways of approaching a problem. Curiosity: Highly intelligent People are curious about the world and want to learn more about how it works.
Like most aspects of human behavior and cognition, intelligence is a complex trait that is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors.
INTP Personality: Intricate Mind Labyrinths. INTPs, the Geniuses, are creative problem-solvers who excel at understanding complex systems and abstract concepts. They have a love for learning and an insatiable curiosity, often resulting in a never-ending quest for knowledge and self-improvement.
Faces that are perceived as highly intelligent are rather prolonged with a broader distance between the eyes, a larger nose, a slight upturn to the corners of the mouth, and a sharper, pointing, less rounded chin.
Exceptional memory is the ability to have accurate and detailed recall in a variety of ways, including hyperthymesia, eidetic memory, synesthesia, and emotional memory. Exceptional memory is also prevalent in those with savant syndrome and mnemonists.
Typically, 70% of all people will have an IQ between 80-120. About 95% of all people will have an IQ between 70-130. High IQ people usually score above 130 IQ points, depending on which test is used. The top 1% of intelligent people in the world, according to these tests, have an IQ of over 145.
Notably, the average IQ score falls between 85 and 115. A score above 140, meanwhile, is considered to be genius level.
Past midnight—The golden hour(s) for human IQ.
Psychology Today reported that intelligent people are likely to be nocturnal beings, with those with a higher IQ going bed later on both weeknights and weekends.
Spatial intelligence or picture smart is a quality that is perhaps the rarest of all the nine Howard Gardner categorized. Human life is big, human intelligence is even bigger. It is impossible to categorize human intelligence.
Science supports laziness
The data found that those with a high IQ got bored less easily, leading them to be less active and spend more time engaged in thought.
The most pressing reason why smart people struggle to succeed in life is that they don't hold importance to social skills. Hence, they fail to develop crucial social skills like relationship building, active listening, effective communication, and empathy. This alienates them from the people around them.
Geniuses think productively, not reproductively
They tend to come up with many different responses, some of which are unconventional and possibly unique. Leonardo da Vinci believed that to gain deep knowledge about a problem, you have to learn how to restructure it in many different ways.
Talking to yourself, it turns out, is a sign of genius. The smartest people on earth talk to themselves. Look at the inner monologues of the greatest thinkers.
According to data obtained from Mensa, Finland has the most geniuses per capita, followed by Sweden and the United Kingdom. Mensa was founded in 1946 to create a "society for bright people, the only qualification for membership of which was a high IQ," according to its website.
Geniuses don't work well with others.
Geniuses have high expectations of themselves and despair quickly when they fail to produce superior results. Highly intelligent people have too many interests and tend to get bored easily.
Although giftedness is a term used to denote the highest talent in a particular field, genius has connotations of creativity and discovery which go beyond normal ability.