OrphanWilde comments on Stupid Questions September 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Is the "Spark of Intelligence" in somebody's eyes a meaningless phrase, or a description of an actual phenomenon?
(Personally I'm inclined to say it's an actual phenomenon; I have face blindness and have observed it, which before I made the connection to the literary phrase, described to others as a "light behind the eyes", with a thus-far 100% correlation with high intelligence.)
I consider it an actual phenomenon, but I'm not sure it's a phenomenon of somebody's eyes (facial expressions, technically speaking) or of my own perception.
Essentially, it's a snap judgement of whether a person is bright or dull and, in my experience, it works out quite well.