People With Big Brains & Very Small Minds Usually Say 9 Phrases On A Regular Basis
Dean Drobot / Shutterstock It’s easy to think smart people are always right, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Being smart doesn’t stop someone from making mistakes.
One of the biggest mistakes that smart people make is thinking they know everything. This can make them very small-minded without even realizing it. These are the kinds of things they say when they’ve gotten too used to thinking their knowledge makes them infallible.
People who have big brains and particularly small minds often tend to say these phrases pretty often
1. ‘I’ve done my research’
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Hearing someone say they’ve done their research is pretty deceptive. On the one hand, researching different perspectives is the best way to understand something better. It makes it seem like anyone who’s done research must have a well-formed opinion. The problem is research means different things to different people.
Instead of looking at credible sources that covered several viewpoints, someone might have looked at one slightly biased source that confirmed what they already believed. Doing research is usually associated with big brains, but it doesn’t exclude someone from having a small mind at the same time.
2. ‘Everyone is so sensitive now’
No matter how intelligent someone is, it’s pretty clear they’re just trying to dismiss other people’s opinions when they call them overly sensitive. It’s their way of shutting down anyone who challenges them.
Therapist Charles Gaby noted, “When someone tells me I’m being too sensitive, it’s giving me feedback that my reaction is bigger than the moment deserves.”
Gaby stressed that a questionable reaction doesn’t mean your feelings are wrong. This phrase signals that someone isn’t ready to think about the possibility that others know more than they do. If they write them off as sensitive, their opinions can’t be taken seriously.
3. ‘That’s just common sense’
People have called certain facts common sense for years, but there are no clear guidelines for it. Someone can say everyone should know something because it’s common sense when it’s not actually true.
That’s the kind of thing a small-minded person would do. They’re intelligent enough to know about the importance of common sense, so they think they can throw that phrase around to make people feel like they have to believe them. But there’s obviously no logic there.
4. ‘Stating the facts doesn’t make me judgmental’
This phrase twists reality so much that it comes dangerously close to gaslighting. There’s a pretty good chance someone is judging another person for their own beliefs here, and they’re misrepresenting their own opinion as a fact to support their ridiculous argument.
It’s a way for them to distract from how flimsy their perspective is. They think their best option is to get defensive while also acting like their opinion is the most obvious fact in the world. All it does is confuse people, which is exactly what they want.
5. ‘I’m trying to be realistic here’
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Being realistic sounds like something a person with big brains would do. But they can just as easily treat their own beliefs as the only realistic ones, which isn’t accurate at all.
In this case, they’re probably experiencing the cognitive bias called attentional bias. This happens when people pay attention to some things and ignore others completely. It can be helpful at times, but not when forming a solid argument. By claiming to be realistic, it’s like this person is trying to reason with their opponent.
Really, they’re just covering up their inability to consider new ideas they hadn’t thought of before.
6. ‘You don’t understand what I’m saying’
People who are both smart and small-minded have a problem with thinking anyone who disagrees with them is automatically wrong. They’ve come to believe their knowledge is so powerful that people who don’t agree just aren’t seeing things clearly.
Researchers have found that people get frustrated when they disagree, which makes sense. But that frustration gets even worse when they think the other person is truly wrong and not just seeing the same issue through a different lens.
Because that smart-and-small-minded combination convinces people they’re right, they feel that way about everyone who disagrees with them. There’s a good chance the other person isn’t totally wrong, but they can’t grasp that.
7. ‘I don’t need anyone to explain what I already know’
Anyone who can’t keep an open mind is seriously lacking in intellectual humility. No matter how intelligent they are, they aren’t willing to consider that they could be wrong and need to rethink their beliefs. That’s why they would say they already know how something works, so they don’t need to hear an explanation. They can’t handle having their opinion challenged.
Of course, this means they’re probably missing out on hearing from people who know a lot more about certain topics than they do. That would be really beneficial, but they refuse to let it happen.
8. ‘Most people just don’t get it’
There’s no need to lump everyone together and say they couldn’t possibly understand something, but these people use it as a defense mechanism when they want to make it sound like they’re the only one who actually knows the truth.
This happens pretty often because it’s easy for people to be totally convinced that they know a lot more about a subject than they actually do. They think they’re experts when they really just have a basic understanding themselves.
It’s not fair for them to pit themselves against everyone else like that when they don’t really know what they’re talking about, but it’s much more comfortable than admitting they aren’t all-knowing.
9. ‘There’s nothing wrong with defending the truth’
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This phrase makes it sound like someone is noble and knowledgeable at the same time. Really, it means that they’re smart, but not so much that they’re willing to change their mind. They’re probably relying on confirmation bias in this situation. That’s what happens when someone ignores information that doesn’t back up what they already believe to be true.
As frustrating as it is, there’s really no reason to argue with them. Their intelligence isn’t enough to make them see reason when they really don’t want to.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
