[Acey]

I find that i do this a lot... it's not so much acting stupid for laughs and comedy (which i do fairly often too), but not giving myself enough credit to express myself, and therefore pretending i dont know the answer. My first response to questions is to brush them off with an "i dont know", "i have no idea", "you are asking the wrong person" etc. and usually right after i would think to myself "i know the answer but i'm not going to say it because ..."

The consequence of me doing this for god knows how long has led people to believe that i'm stupid as hell..lol. A part of me thinks that i'm just too lazy to put forth the effort of rummaging through that mess of a mind to come up with an answer in a timely manner, while another part of me thinks that i dont want people to rely on me for anything because sooner or later i'll let them down.

 

[Vaka]

I'm not an INFP, but I'm just wanting to ask you a question. I've been looking into enneagram lately. Out of curiosity, are you an enneagram 6? That is, if you've looked into enneagram.

Anyway, sometimes I decide to not answer peoples' questions even if I think I know the answer. I think that it's sometimes because I don't feel like explaining myself :laughing:.

 

[Acey]

i think i do that too. I have no need to express myself if questioned about politics, my religious beliefs, etc, so i just pretend i dont have any stance on the issue.

nope im enneagram 4w2? i think. It's been a while since ive taken that test.

 

[Halcy0n]

People tend to think that I'm an idiot because I have no common sense.

Also, I do the whole act like an idiot for comedy thing. Those who don't know me well sometimes think that I'm really stupid...then I say something really smart to confound them. That's always fun. :crazy:

 

[Lad]

Most of the time I pretend to know everything. INFPs typically aren't factual types so we can piece together some weird correlations to create an answer.

However, I do have moments where I pretend to be stupid. This is rare, but I do it with people that ask you questions, but never take your advice. Alternatively, sometimes you feel like you have to explain a books worth of information for them to understand, in which case I just say "not quite sure myself" or something.

 

[Angel1412kaitou]

I do this constantly, either because I don't want others to rely on me, I don't want to be a burden, I don't want to seem intimidating, etc. Oh, and once I play a role or mirror someone, I can't stop for a while. And yes- playing stupid is helpful at times but sometimes I wonder if it's worth it at all. I would stop if I had guts. And they'll find out eventually, and think I'm just holding back because I'm scared of what they'll think when they see what I'm actually thinking.

It's terrifying! :laughing:

 

[Oliver]

I relate to this thread. For my part, I know where this behavior stems from. In secondary school I badly wanted to hang out with the cool kids in my class to whom good grades were a not-cool thing. So I intentionally screwed up on my tests and pretended to be ignorant in class just to be liked. I've carried this with me into adulthood, which to some degree is healthy because you're not always right when you think you are, and I personally can't stand self-conceited intellectuals.

Being honest with your intelligence gives you a more balanced view of your personality, I think. When you know what you know, you also know what you don't know. If you're consistently downplaying your intellectual capability you might end up with a feeling of "I know that I'm always right, I'm just not allowed to express it" which is not helpful in any way.

 

[Coccinellidae]

Oh, gooooo!!!!!!!! *Does her happy dance*
I can relate.....a MUCH!!!!!!! :laughing::laughing:
Thanks for creating the thread! :tongue:

So here's the thing... I'm half stupid and I play to be stupid..so..here..we...have...an overdoze of stupidness!

1) I do the same things as you do. Not saying something when I might know or know something because....there are plenty of reason. :tongue:

2) And my second style of stupidness is to ask why (which I do a lot :laughing at things that are logical or just obvious..or just are the way they are..but nah...if we are serious here.. then I'm just curious. I love to hear how others explain things and how they put things into their words. I love to hear other's thoughts.

But wait..I'm not that stupid..one test said that I'm genius at flirting! Beat that, bro! :laughing:

 

[Blueguardian]

I do act dumber than I really am in general. Part of it is that, I find many people don't ask me for answers... but more for an excuse to "debate." Furthermore, I much rather be underestimated than overestimated for a multitude of reasons.

That being said; for some reason, people in real life seem to think I am quite smart. I suppose quiet, well mannered, loner = intelligent in some peoples minds?

 

[Acey]

Oh, gooooo!!!!!!!! *Does her happy dance*
I can relate.....a MUCH!!!!!!! :laughing::laughing:
Thanks for creating the thread! :tongue:

So here's the thing... I'm half stupid and I play to be stupid..so..here..we...have...an overdoze of stupidness!

1) I do the same things as you do. Not saying something when I might know or know something because....there are plenty of reason. :tongue:

2) And my second style of stupidness is to ask why (which I do a lot :laughing at things that are logical or just obvious..or just are the way they are..but nah...if we are serious here.. then I'm just curious. I love to hear how others explain things and how they put things into their words. I love to hear other's thoughts.

But wait..I'm not that stupid..one test said that I'm genius at flirting! Beat that, bro! :laughing:

LOL! you are precious:laughing:

i also do the questioning people a lot thing hahaha, i still think im just lazy as hell :crazy:

 

[refugee]

i do this as well. there have been so many times I've known the answer to a question but pretended not to know because I want them to like me. for some reason i think, if i let them think they're smarter than me, they will like me. i've seen so many know-it-alls get hated and despised, i just didn't want to become one of them. this is my conundrum.

 

[Nasmoe]

I think I only pretend if I feel a little doubt about me knowing so I just go ahead and play like I don't know anything about something. Sometimes I'm afraid to speak up if a question was asked indirectly. I almost always pretend to be stupid for humor.

 

[youll.never.know]

i do this sometimes too. A lot of the time its because i just use it as sort of a way to get attention off of myself because i dont want to go into a long, involved answer. Maybe even more often i do it because i want people to move on from talking to me about a certain topic because i am uncomfortable discussing it.

 

[rowingineden]

I can't seem to get myself to pretend to be stupid, because my intelligence is just something I value so much. However, sometimes, in order to deflect other people's jealousy of the things I manage to accomplish, I fake incompetence. People treat you the same when you are incompetent as if you were dumb, so, it creates the same effect.

 

[SenhorFrio]

i sorta do sometimes intentionally as a joke, like i'll say"what are you trying to say?"when it's obvious and sometimes i'll act more interested in something than i really am and ask more questions than normal...but over all i try not to act dumb-i'm samrt in my OWN way!

 

[saturnbug]

In class when the teacher calls on me I always try to dumb down my answers. I don't want to say something so obscure by accident and have the class go "err...wtf."
My teachers are always surprised when I hand in papers. I always hear "I honestly didn't expect this from you. You should say more observations like these during class."

 

[jdjdsquared]

I do this sometimes at social gatherings, particularly if there is a game show on like jeopardy, if people are playing trivial pursuit, etc.. I guess it is the INFP thing to avoid conflict, and, I am a bit of a brainiac as well. I seriously will piss people off because I will know virtually every single random trivia question. They had jeopardy on at work at an evening IT job and people would answer, I eventually stopped playing as people would ask why I am working this job, as if the Dostoevsky novels I was bringing in at the time didn't cause enough drama. I will play though if I anticipate a challenger, but I generally dislike hurting peoples feelings to just not participate. (I used to do Brain Bowl/Mu Alpha Theta, etc and it is not fun beating people badly)

 

[Sily]

I prefer pretending I'm smart.





;-)

 

[salty]

At times if some one is very arrogant and behaves as if they they know it all I will play dumb as though i'm stupid. I do it because i find arrogant people to be very shallow and not very conscious. I believe consciousness to be far more important than intelligence. Some people are very conscious but not very bright whilst others are super intelligent but are not in the least conscious. The more superior and arrogant they become the more I find I am amused by it all. They have no idea how much they are being manipulated and leave feeling all the more superior whilst I see them as being just stupid.

 

[songofcalamity]

I don't know, I just give off the impression that I am a dumb, somewhat ditzy and in-her-own-world girl. And it's just that whenever someone ask me a question, I am too lazy to give them a detailed deep answer because firstly, I tried and they still don't understand and secondly, I don't really bother.

But my INTJ friend pointed out that I act dumb. Hah, I think he was just pissed off that I beat him to his game. Hahahaha.