A German study published in Intelligence shows that people with higher cognitive scores are better at judging others’ intellect. Researchers found that these “good judges” rely on clear speech and vocabulary cues in short video clips, outperforming peers on average within a 50‑video test battery that measured participants’ own intelligence using three standard cognitive tests. The study included 198 participants — mostly university students.

The team, led by Christoph Heine, also examined whether emotion‑perception, empathy, and life satisfaction predict judging accuracy. Results linked higher emotion‑perception scores and greater subjective well‑being to better performance, while gender, empathy, and openness showed no effect. Participants averaged 29 years of age and 77 percent were female students in psychology major programs today.

Participants watched 50 one‑minute videos of targets performing tasks like reading weather reports or explaining symmetry. After each clip, observers rated the target’s intelligence on a five‑point scale. The study’s design isolates short‑term social cues, raising questions about ecological validity and the influence of participants’ psychological training on perception accuracy.

These findings suggest that cognitive ability intertwines with social evaluation skills, potentially informing hiring tools that rely on video interviews. If validated in more diverse samples, platforms could incorporate emotion‑perception metrics to flag reliable assessors. The study underscores that being a good judge of intelligence aligns with broader psychological adjustment, not merely academic talent today.