13 signs that tell you that you are smarter than you think

Stupid people tend to overestimate their competence, while smart people tend to act modestly. As Shakespeare said, “A fool thinks he is smart; a wise man knows that he is stupid.”

This traditional wisdom is reinforced by a Cornell University study by social psychologists David Dining and Justin Kruger. The phenomenon is now known as the Dunning-Kruger effect.

So, if you are not too confident in your own intelligence, this may be a sign that you are quite smart.

Here are some subtle signs that you are much smarter than you think.

13 PHOTOS

1. You took music lessons.

Research shows that music helps children's minds develop in several ways. A 2011 study found that verbal intelligence scores among 4-6-year-olds rose after just a month of music lessons. A 2004 study led by Glenn Schellenberg found that 6-year-olds who took nine months of piano or voice lessons experienced an increase in IQ compared to children who took drama lessons or no lessons at all.

2. You are older.

Norwegian epidemiologists used military records to study the birth order, health status, and IQ estimates of nearly 250,000 18- and 19-year-old men born between 1967 and 1976. The results showed that, on average, the first child had an IQ of 103, the second child 100, and the third child 99.

3. You are skinny.

For a 2006 study, scientists took roughly 2,200 adult tests over five years, and the results showed that the larger the waist, the lower the cognitive ability.

4. You have a cat.

A 2014 study of 600 students found that people who identified as "dog people" were more outgoing than those who identified as "cat people," according to a test that measures personality and intelligence. But guess what? Those same cat lovers scored higher on a test that measures cognitive ability.

5. You were breastfed.

In two studies, researchers looked at over 3,000 children in the UK and New Zealand. Those babies who were breastfed scored nearly seven points higher on an IQ test, but only if they had a certain version of the FADS2 gene. (This version of the gene was present in about equal numbers among children who were and were not breastfed.)

6. You are left-handed.

Research links left-handedness to "divergent thinking," a form of creativity that allows you to come up with new ideas, at least among men.

7. You are tall.

In 2008, a Princeton study of 1,000 people found that taller people scored higher on IQ tests.

8. You learned to read early.

In 2012, researchers looked at about 2,000 pairs of identical twins in the UK and found that a child who learned to read earlier tended to score higher on tests of cognitive ability.

9. You worry a lot.

A growing body of research shows that anxious people may be smarter than others.

10. You are funny.

In one study, 400 psychology students took intelligence tests that measured abstract reasoning ability and verbal intelligence. They were then asked to come up with captions for several cartoons, and these captions were reviewed by independent raters. As predicted, smarter students came up with funnier headlines.

11. You are dirty.

A study published in The Psychological Science of the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management by Kathleen Vox found that working in an untidy room does promote creativity.

12. You didn't have sex until after high school.

According to a study from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, high school students with higher IQ lost their virginity much later than those with average or lower IQ. The main sample included 12,000 teenagers from 7th to 12th grade.

13. You are an owl.

One study published in the Official Journal of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences found that owls were generally superior in terms of intelligence. He concluded that ethnographic evidence suggests that "night activities" were rare in the lives of our ancestors. This means that smarter people are more likely to stay up late because smarter people are more likely to "maintain evolutionarily new values".