Silencing your cell phone may signal a higher IQ

A woman is sitting in a cafe talking to a friend, and her cell phone starts ringing. She looks at it, decides not to take the call, and silences the call using the button provided.

Across the cafe, another woman hears her phone ring. She looks at it, decides not to take the call, and sets her cell phone back down without silencing it, letting it ring loudly multiple times until it goes to voice mail while some people around her check to make sure it’s not their phone ringing, and others try to awkwardly avert their eyes from her and the scene she is causing.

A recent study conducted by the U.S. government offers more insight into these two very different types of reactions to a ringing cell phone. Research shows that every person in the world who owns a cell phone falls into one of two categories: people who let their their cell phone ring, and people who silence it. No one does both interchangeably – a cell phone owner chooses to either do one or the other.

Recently, behavioral scientists conducted a study on a group of randomly selected cell phone owners to see if they could ultimately find the answer to specific questions, including: is there a correlation between people who have a low IQ and people who choose not to silence their cell phones? And do people who silence their cell phones have a higher IQ than those who do not?

The results of the research showed that there is indeed a direct correlation between people who create a generally awkward and uncomfortable feeling for the people around them by letting their cell phone ring instead of silencing it and a having a lower IQ. The research also showed that people who silence their cell phone instead of letting it ring have IQ’s that are anywhere from 20-60 points higher than those people that let it ring loudly for everyone to hear.

“This study is confirming something we knew all along, we just needed the science to back it up,” scientist George Glass said. “Now we can be certain who the idiot is in the room just by observing their behavior when their cell phone is ringing and they don’t want to answer it.”