Is Messy Handwriting a Sign of Intelligence?

There are so many myths and misconceptions about bad handwriting that it’s time to dispel them and put them into the right perspective.

Messy handwriting and ugly handwriting are two entirely different things. Messy handwriting carries a lot of baggage and is most undesirable. While it is not possible to go into the meaning of messy handwriting here, it is by no means a sign of high intelligence.

And then there is ugly handwriting which many people think is an indicator of low intelligence – or even as a deficiency of some sort.

There are also some people who are under the somewhat hopeful but misguided impression that writers with ugly handwriting are genius material.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Ugly handwriting is not an indicator of high intelligence. Or of poor intelligence for that matter. The fact is that ugly handwriting by definition is neither good nor bad. But that being said, there are many people of high intelligence whose handwritings do not conform to traditional handwriting styles.

Very often these are highly creative people who are non-conformists and their handwriting will reflects this. These individuals may be particularly original or unconventional and their originality will show up in their handwriting. Think of Picasso whose lifestyle and also his handwriting were totally out of the ordinary to say the least.

So we see that there are intelligent people with “good” handwriting as well as “bad” handwriting. And then there are very simple people who may have beautiful handwriting or ugly handwriting.

Which is why we cannot make blanket statements about the meaning of messy, ugly or indeed beautiful handwriting. Handwriting has to be studied on an individual basis as there are so many permutations and interpretations.

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