Trust Me, You're Smart - East Idaho News
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Trust Me, You’re Smart

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GETTY 31914 Handshake?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1395222078246anyaberkut/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Some believe that placing too much trust in people is foolish.

However, the ability to feel you can successfully rely on others may actually be a sign of intelligence, according to Oxford University researchers.

By studying the results of the General Social Survey, which is conducted annually or biennially in the U.S., the researchers found that more intelligent individuals tend to be good judges of character, thus enabling them to trust those who they feel won’t betray them.

Furthermore, it’s possible that smart people also know how to better weigh a situation so that they know whether a person has the incentive to hold up his end of a bargain.

The main advantage of trusting people can mean the difference in the success or failure of crucial programs, the researchers concluded.

On the other hand, the Oxford team discovered that those who score lower on measures of intelligence seem to have a harder time trusting people, perhaps because they can’t read them as well as others.

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