4. You Practice Intellectual Humility

There is a profound difference between being exceptionally smart and being a know-it-all. Highly intelligent people are acutely aware of the limits of their own knowledge. This phenomenon ties back to the Dunning-Kruger effect, a cognitive bias identified in 1999. While individuals with lower cognitive ability tend to vastly overestimate their competence, highly intelligent people often underestimate their skills because they understand just how complex most subjects truly are. If you frequently find yourself saying, “I do not know enough about this topic to form an opinion,” you are demonstrating a hallmark of advanced cognitive maturity.