Intellectual Arrogance Leads to Better Academic Performance

In a development that hardly surprises a genius like you, researchers at Baylor University have determined that a healthy dose of “intellectual arrogance” predicts higher academic achievement.

Confirming a fact you’ve known to be true since you first sprang from the head of Zeus, an exaggerated view of intellectual ability and knowledge helped study participants score better on intelligence tests.

“One possibility is that they know what they know and that translates to increases in academic performance,” says researcher Wade Rowatt, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor.

Sounds like the two of you would agree on something.

Contrasted with these findings, the study found that individuals with higher “intellectual humility” — detestable characteristics like having a skeptical view of one’s own intelligence and opinions, and being open to criticism and ideas — scored better in peer reviews.

The group was found to view people as intellectually arrogant whom they saw as being high in dominance and wanting to be the center of attention.

“Haters gonna hate,” you were quoted as saying while reading over the study’s results, an inexpertly made cappuccino cooling by your dog-eared copy of The Fountainhead.

In the study, 103 undergraduate students with grades likely a good deal worse than yours worked for a full semester in groups of four to six members in upper-level psychology courses. They performed varied tasks, both individually and together.

Afterward, each person completed a questionnaire judging the personalities of each group member, including themselves. They judged “intellectual humility” as being “open to criticism” and “knows what he/she is not good at.” They measured “intellectual arrogance,” based on such traits as “close-minded” and “believes own ideas superior to others’ ideas.”

Additional traits also were evaluated, among them assertiveness, intelligence, self-discipline, openness, and sense of humor — all of which you would score highly on, if subjected to the same examination.

“What I think is important about intellectual humility is its necessity for not only science, but for just learning generally — and that applies to the classroom, a work setting, wherever,” Benjamin R. Meagher, a lead scientist on the study, currently a visiting assistant professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and someone unfit to buff-shine your wingtips, says in the release.

In what is clearly a falsehood, he goes on to say, “Learning something new requires first acknowledging your own ignorance and being willing to make your ignorance known to others.”

The study’s findings will be of interest to those wondering how a person like Donald Trump — a decently-confident person, in your estimation — can view themselves positively while others see them as arrogant and abrasive.

More mystifying to you, however, is where in this hilljack town you can buy a decent cigar.