The unexpected mental habit that distinguishes intelligent people, according to science

Imagine this scenario: you’ve been doing something a certain way for years. It works. Maybe it’s not perfect, but it gets the job done, and you’ve mastered it. Then someone comes along and shows you a better alternative: faster, more efficient, or simpler. What do you do?

Most people would say they would change. Of course! However, the truth is that very few actually do because we have a strong tendency to cling to what we know, even when there is an objectively better alternative.

Psychologists at the University of Western Australia discovered that the most intelligent people are also the most willing to abandon a strategy when a better one emerges. It might seem like they’ve just discovered something new, but their study reveals that intelligence may not only consist of finding solutions, but also in the ability to know when it’s time to let go of certain habits.

The experiment that tested mental flexibility

To investigate this phenomenon, the researchers designed a series of rather ingenious tasks. Basically, more than 300 participants had to solve two problems: navigate a maze or open a lock.

The key was that they taught people the specific way to solve the problems, but once they had learned and tested the initial solution, the scientists showed them a new alternative. But there was a catch: sometimes the new solution was better, sometimes just as effective, and in some cases, worse.

The question the researchers posed was simple: would people change their strategy when they had a better one, or would they continue using the one they already knew and mastered?

The results were revealing.

The habit that distinguishes the most intelligent people

The researchers found that most people preferred to stick with the familiar solution that had previously worked for them. In other words, the brain showed a clear preference for the familiar.

So far, nothing particularly surprising. The interesting part came when they analyzed individual differences. Then they discovered two exceptions: people more open to experience and those who had scored higher on intelligence tests .

However, people who were more open to experience (a personality trait that describes a tendency towards curiosity, imagination, and interest in new ideas and experiences) tended to change solutions, but often chose those that presented similar or worse paths.

Intelligent people, in contrast, didn’t chase after just any novelty. Instead, they evaluated the quality of new information and only adopted it if they considered it better. In other words, they embraced new solutions, leaving the old ones behind, but only when the new solutions were clearly superior. If the new solutions didn’t offer real advantages, they were less likely to be seduced by them.

That reveals that intelligent people:

• They are less tied to their customs and habits
• They are more likely to embrace change
• They carefully evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the new

In fact, this study debunks a widespread myth that intelligent people are more innovative, rebellious, or disruptive. Everything seems to indicate that intelligence doesn’t consist of constantly seeking novelty, but rather in the ability to recognize when something new is truly better.

Basically, curiosity drives us to explore, but intelligence helps us to discriminate. Curiosity encourages us to wonder what’s out there, while intelligence makes us question whether change is truly worthwhile. Of course, both qualities are important, but they serve different purposes in life.

The true ally of learning

Most people think that learning is about acquiring more information, but sometimes it’s quite the opposite. To learn and progress, we often need to let go of certain knowledge, habits, or beliefs that are no longer useful or that may even be hindering our development.

Psychologist Alvin Toffler expressed this idea brilliantly when he wrote that the illiterate of the 21st century would not be those who could not read or write, but those who were unable to learn, unlearn, and relearn.

The study points in that direction. Intelligence not only helps us acquire new knowledge and solve problems, it also allows us to discern and discard what has become obsolete in order to embrace something new that can truly offer us something interesting.

It’s not about novelty for novelty’s sake. The most intelligent people seem to possess a kind of intellectual humility that allows them to step outside their own frameworks of thought. They don’t cling to an idea simply because it’s familiar, but neither do they adopt a new one just because it’s different. What they do is evaluate, compare, and, if the evidence warrants it, change their minds.

Source:

Burtenshaw, T. et. Al. (2026) Individual differences in intelligence and personality guide human social learning. Personality and Individual Differences; 253: 113639.