Could small talk be used to test someone's intelligence? How could you do this without making it obvious as to what you are trying to do?

To interact with this page you must login. Signup

ask a person to answer this question Ask to answer

How could you do this without making it obvious as to what you are trying to do?

social skills

communication

small talk

psychology

advice

tynamite

Here's the question I use

Would you rather have 1 million dollars or all the knowledge of the internet in your brain? And why?

You could ask them the classic interview question that Apple asks in interviews.

“There are three boxes, one contains only apples, one contains only oranges, and one contains both apples and oranges. The boxes have been incorrectly labelled such that no label identifies the actual contents of the box it labels. Opening just one box, and without looking in the box, you take out one piece of fruit. By looking at the fruit, how can you immediately label all of the boxes correctly?”
http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/top-25-oddball-interview-questions-2010/

Or you can test to see if someone has a sense of humour.

Question: You're trapped in a room with no windows and doors. All you have is a saw and a table, how do you get out?
[person says an answer]
Answer: You saw the table in half, and two halves make a hole. And then you crawl through the hole. (Don't forget your jokey voice)

I think you know when you're talking to someone. which one of the two are more suited for someone. This question is missing a fun question for a dumb person with no sense of humour. I can't help you there.

Just come up with some fun questions, no actually don't do that. Using taxing questions when you've just started speaking to someone is annoying and frustrating.

Instead you should just slant whatever you're talking about, with an inquisitive stance on it. That's what I would do. I would disregard everything I've said above this paragraph. Asking taxing questions is not attractive.