In partnership with YouAndIQ.
When it comes to modern dating, it can be a hook-up-obsessed jungle out there.
Still, most of us just want to find a meaningful relationship with someone who shares the same values we have. For the influencers among us, intelligence is typically one of those values.
YouAndIQ was created with that exact purpose in mind. The dating site is dedicated to helping smart people meet one another and has built a community of kindred spirits.
Co-founders Jonathon and Winston are two brothers who believe in being smart with your heart. So much so they’ve put together an essential list of the six signs to look out for when you’re on a date. Here’s how you can spot the signs your date is intelligent and a keeper:
She Has a Sense of Humor
In endless surveys about desirable traits in a date, a good sense of humor routinely lands at the top of the list. Why? Well, on a very practical level, funny people are fun to be around!
However, a good sense of humor also typically indicates intelligence. Humor often requires a keen sense of irony, a big picture view of the world around us, the ability to combine two disparate ideas to make a new, funny idea, and/or a wit that recognizes the subtleties of wordplay. And if your date deploys these skills with lightning speed, then you know that her ol’ brain motor is firing on all cylinders!
He Naturally Deploys an Impressive Vocabulary
We all took those boring Scantron vocabulary tests in middle school. But how many of those words did we retain? And who needs ‘em anyway, right?
Well, as an adult, suddenly those tests might not seem so terrible after all, because a good vocabulary can indicate a number of awesome aspects of intelligence, such as the ability to retain information or a history of being well-read and studious. Most importantly, it betrays your date’s ability to distil a complex idea into one or two effective 10-cent words that just say it all, while the rest of us bumble around for convoluted paragraphs that just muck it all up!
She Listens and Has a Good Memory
Did you say something offhand early in your date that, hours later, your date recalled and tied into a clever joke that jump-started your attention and had your sides splitting? Well, then you may have a smart cookie on your hands.
Listening well isn’t just polite, it’s also a great indicator of mental engagement. Your date isn’t just registering the words you’re saying, but the ideas behind them, and being heard well can be quite sexy! So perk up when she is able to select that perfect piece of information out of her mental archive of the date and make the kind of awesome connection for which brainiacs are known.
He Speaks Multiple Languages
Some of us have a hard enough time dedicating enough brain space to one language. So how about those people who’ve dedicated space to a second language? Or a third? Or more?
Even if we have the advantage of growing up in multi-lingual situations, the ability to toggle between languages is an impressive one. Additionally, multilingualism also indicates that your date was probably either diligent in school, where he learned these languages or enjoyed a cultured upbringing, which itself is an attractive contributor to intelligence.
She Has Succeeded as a Self-Starter
Did your date conceive and create her own successful startup? Did she develop a simple and clever brand and also put in the legwork to get it off the ground? Then we think you might have a winner!
Coming up with a clever idea that succeeds in the marketplace can be a good indicator of intelligence. When your date has put in the legwork to get it off the ground, it shows she has a drive and determination that’s probably applied to her pursuits, including the intellectual ones, throughout her entire life.
He’s Passionate About a Subject and Knows Lots on
Passion is infectious and inspiring on its own. When that passion centers on a particular subject, it means that your date has probably probed it and studied it a lot.
Be it international finance or collecting rare stamps, what it ultimately shows is that your date has dedicated a lot of brain power and memory creation to his passion.
Of course, I don’t blame you if you want to decline someone who’s passionate about collecting rare stamps. Sounds like a snooze-fest. No offense, philatelists! Ooh, nice 10-cent word, right? Who wants to date me?! You can find me on YouAndIQ. See you there.
Photos via Stocksnap.io
