Breaking down the social pressures to appear smart
By TARA ROMERO— tcrome@ucdavis.edu
In every single class across campus, there will inevitably be that one student (sometimes two or three) whose sole desire is proving that they are smarter than everyone else in the room. You can all imagine exactly who I’m talking about: the students who waste the class period arguing with the professor, your class partners who roll their eyes when you say the wrong answer or the ones in your group who hit you with the “Erm, actually” that ruins your whole day.
Talking with my friends in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields (STEM) and taking into account my own experiences in the humanities, it seems like in every major we run into these kinds of people. Depending on your personality type, sharing a class with these students can range from an entertaining to an extremely excruciating experience.
However, I think we’re all more similar to these students than we’d like to admit.
In university, there’s a pressure to appear smart in front of our peers. There is a strange urge to prove to one another that we’re supposed to be here. It’s like a collective feeling of having “imposter syndrome,” yet nobody wants to talk about it. College ends up becoming a game of “Werewolf” where every single one of us thinks that we’re the only imposter.
It certainly doesn’t help that professors set us up in direct competition with one another by implementing grading curves or by releasing the highest, lowest and average scores on Canvas for us to compare our own marks to.
Even in the classroom, nobody wants to admit to one another that they didn’t finish the readings. Nobody wants to admit that they got a low score on the exam. Nobody wants to ask questions and disrupt the lecture — even if their question would help everyone else in the room better understand the material.
We might not be arguing with the professor, but we have that same need to prove ourselves and our intelligence.
This phenomenon isn’t restricted to university either; there’s an everyday pressure to prove our intelligence. Think about when you’re talking with your friends and they bring up something you’ve never heard of. Many of us lie, saying, “Oh, I think I’ve heard of it,” and go along with the conversation without understanding the context. We participate in conversations without knowing what we’re talking about.
This phenomenon can be especially dangerous online. Not everyone is an expert in everything, yet everyone online acts like they are. People with very little understanding of an event or movement feel the need to pitch in and share their beliefs to appear knowledgeable to their followers — when, in reality, they’re only disrupting the conversation with their very limited perspective and, even worse, potentially spreading misinformation.
The need to appear smart only harms us and prevents us from actually learning. Carol Dweck, an educational psychologist, explains how students who only care about appearing smart have a “fixed mindset.” This makes them afraid of challenges, devastated by setbacks and less motivated to learn. The fixed mindset is in opposition to the “growth mindset,” in which students want to be challenged, are resilient in the face of setbacks and are more motivated to learn.
A crucial step to learning and embracing the growth mindset is humility. Allow yourself to admit that you don’t know something, that you’re confused or that you need help. Only then do you open yourself up to learning for the sake of learning.
So, I encourage you all to take down the “genius” facade. Admit your bad scores to your peers and you’ll find that you’re not alone in the trenches — or if your classmates did well, ask for some study tips! If your friend brings up something you don’t know about, ask them about it. If you’re interacting with a post online, do your own research on the topic before joining the conversation.
There’s no need to prove yourself — we are all smart in so many different ways, and not knowing something is not a slight on your intelligence. In my opinion, the smartest people in the room are the ones who aren’t afraid of appearing unintelligent. When you’re brave enough to ask questions, you actually get answers.
Written by: Tara Romero— tcrome@ucdavis.edu
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