It seems to me that you can find out a lot about people's intelligence by talking with them a little, though I've underestimated people who were bright enough but didn't present as intellectual.
You're also liable to perceive people with low social skills as less intelligent than they are, because the social situation is too hard a burden on their processing capacities.
It's not really surprising that people's intelligence seems to be rarely overestimated, though, is it? Smartness is impossible to fake, but you can fake stupidity.
But yes, of course, for various purposes, IQ is not the one thing that we need to know. Who would have doubted that?
It's not really surprising that people's intelligence seems to be rarely overestimated, though, is it? Smartness is impossible to fake, but you can fake stupidity.
In a hypothetical world where social skills (presentation) and IQ are inversely correlated, where you don't know they are inversely correlated, and where you spend most of your time interacting with people in the 140+ IQ range, a person with a 120 IQ could come along and impress you to such a great extent that you immediately hypothesize that their IQ is in the 160+ range, until you see someth...
I've never heard of anyone saying "I thought that person was really intelligent, but they turned out not to be", and when there are scandals about people with fake credentials, they don't seem to come from people with fake credentials making mistakes-- instead, someone checks the history.
It seems to me that you can find out a lot about people's intelligence by talking with them a little, though I've underestimated people who were bright enough but didn't present as intellectual.
The real problems are with identifying conscientiousness, benevolence, and loyalty-- that's where the unpleasant surprises show up.