The group conducted a simple social experiment which involves letting people choose whether they are average or intelligent and asking them why. There were a total of eleven respondents and each explained the reason why they answered accordingly.

Based on the social experiment, most people see themselves as average because they believe that there are still a lot of things that are unknown to them which hinders them to consider themselves as intelligent.  According to them, claiming yourself to be ‘intelligent’ equates to ‘bragging’ although it’s not what you really meant. It has been a part of their culture to be humble and be conscious of what others will say about them. In other words, the society always has a say on a person’s outlook on his/her own image.  

“For me, I am not satisfied with average. I’m aiming like for example, academically, in UPHSI, I’m aiming to be top 10, so I think , I’m not just aiming but I’m trying to hit the mark which is to be top 10”

-one of the respondents

Intelligence, as dictated by the society, is defined as having the ‘mental capacity’ or certain cognitive ability, which is reflective of Charles Spearman’s Theory of General Intelligence. An ‘intelligent person’ is usually associated with the word “perfection” and is defined as a “master of all trades” who excels in everything while those who failed to meet this “standard” are classified as average or ordinary individuals. This is the traditional view or schema that we have towards intelligence, especially because we grew up in a society which puts the intellectuals in a pedestal capable of making no mistakes at all. Socialization, we can say, is one of the reasons why we have this type of outlook. We are greatly influenced by our environment and the people’s opinions towards us. The older generation believes in this perspective and we were also, consciously and unconsciously, conditioned to think like them.  

However, there are still individuals who think otherwise because they believe that intelligence can also be measured apart from just the cognitive ability. From this, we have the Theory of Multiple Intelligence which was developed by Howard Gardner. According to him, every person possesses some kind of intelligence in varying levels and that everyone should focus on that particular ability and further develop and enhance it. From this, intelligence does not only focus on one’s cognitive ability but also in logic, interpersonal, spatial, intrapersonal, linguistic or musical ability.