At least, that’s what a recent study in the British Journal of Psychology claims. The question that evolutionary psychologists Kanazawa and Li were looking to answer is what makes a life well-lived and how intelligence, population density and friendship can affect our happiness.
The psychologists theorized that the lifestyle of our ancient ancestors form the basis of what makes us happy in modern times,
“Situations and circumstances that would have increased our ancestors’ life satisfaction in the ancestral environment may still increase our life satisfaction today.”
Their study was carried out on 15,000 adults aged between 18 – 28 and their results weren’t actually all that surprising.
Firstly, their findings showed that people who lived in more densely populated areas were less satisfied with their life in general, compared to those who live in less populated areas.
The second finding that the psychologists discovered was that the more social a person is with their close friends, the greater they said their happiness was.
These correlations were diminished or even reversed when the results of intelligent people were analyzed. In other words – when smart people spend time with their friends, it makes them less happy.
Why would intelligent people not gain happiness when they’re around close family and friends? There may be many explanations, including the one given by Carol Graham, a researcher who studies the economics of happiness,
“The findings in here suggest (and it is no surprise) that those with more intelligence and the capacity to use it … are less likely to spend so much time socializing because they are focused on some other longer-term objective.“
This generally makes sense since those intelligent people are so focused on achieving their intellectual goals, anything that takes away from those ambitions makes them unhappy.
The modern day human life has changed rapidly since our ancestors’ time and with technological advances rapidly improving, there may be a kind of mismatch between our brains and the way our bodies are designed to handle situations, according to Kanazawa and Li.
So there we have it. We thought that human interaction would make people happier, but it turns out intelligent people are better off alone.
What do you think of these recent findings? Do you agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments.
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I disagree. I find myself driven by my goals, often more than most things. Yes, I am a slight workaholic and very extroverted but often times with friends leaves me making list in my head of the most efficient process to complete a variety of tasks.
I think the man who said "it's hard to be the smartest person in the room" got it right. There is, of course, a cure for that. Simply spend most of your time with other smart people! I note that he also said he was afraid he sounded "full of himself." In most places in the US, people resent and revile someone who is intelligent and not afraid to show it. All my life, I've been accused of being egotistical, vain, and a "show-off." I admit, sometimes I absolutely WAS those things -- everyone is from time to time. Mostly, though, I was just not trying to "hide my light under a bushel" and people get intimidated when they don't understand things that come easily to you. Which is, after all, THEIR problem. Once I matured enough to stop worrying about others' opinions, and shed the neediness for approval, I found myself attracting others as friends who shared my intelligence. One smart person is awesome, but a whole TEAM -- wow! I don't consider myself "better than" others, but I do notice that I am often smarter than many others. It's just what I was born with -- not good, not bad, just IS.
I don't have a HUGE group of friends, but I do have a few, including my amazing spouse and we have a whole lotta fun!
This is quite a paradox. We spend our whole pubescent lives trying to "fit in". Who would have thought that someone with a high IQ would have trouble with that?
I've taken probably near 100 "IQ" tests just for fun (yep, I like tests), I average between 140-160, depending on the test. I'm an extrovert, class-clown type. At least that's what I choose to show the world.
Internally I overanalyze the crap out of everything. I know first hand how vapid and mundane typical small talk is. I would love to find just one person with whom I could have strong cerebral interaction.
Many average thinkers believe that being hyper intelligent would be a dream. Well, I'm here to tell you that it can be awfully lonely in a crowded room.
I think you are confusing intellect with ambition. Perhaps intelligent people prefer to be alone more than their less intelligent counterparts - I personally consider myself quite intelligent, and I would say this correlation applies - but the reasoning for such behavior is the result of a preference to be introspective rather successful. Intelligent people are deep thinkers. They desire to be alone in times where they favor the company of their own thoughts over the interference presented by others in a social setting. The presentation that intelligent people would rather be alone solely due to the fact that they are too busy pursuing their personal goals grossly oversimplifies the issue. Some of the most ambitious people I know are equally arrogant, and they generally reject the company of others for egocentric reasons.
In closing, I agree with the overall premise that intelligent people prefer to be alone more often on a more frequent basis, but I do not necessarily agree with the rational you have presented to arrive at this conclusion. The irony is that intelligent people would not allow the reasoning behind their preference for solitude to be so simple.
I often look around at others (who most "intellectuals" would consider inept or lacking in some sort of intellectual way) ...and find myself in envy. Not because I want their life, but because it seems the world tends to coddle and help in everyway to those who are "stupid", and expects everything from those who show a shred of smarts and does nothing in return mostly(personal experiences..)...I'm fucking over it honestly. I feel I am either better off alone or with a few other intellectuals to hold conversations or debates. I like to be questioned, I enjoy the opinions of others (especially if it can get us riled up and into the debate). I LOVE LOVE LOOOOVE to be proven wrong and I hated being the one people look to for answers, hence why I have no friends. I chose to work on my journey rather than worrying about accumulating a shit ton of Facebook fakes. It's lonely but hey, its way less frustrating than being everyone's everything. Im personally going through some revelations I've been having about the facts behind why my parents even had me in the first place and man does it suck being able to analyze the actions of the people who "had" you, before, they even had you. Basically my mom had me so someone would be on this planet that HAS to love her after all her failed relationships and terrible childhood. And my father only had a kid because at the time of my conception, he was having chest pains and thought he was going to die. So being the "ohhh so smart" man HE is, only got my mother pregnant so someone would pass on his name. I can't tell you how disheartening it is to find myself on a planet, that under any other "normal" intelligent decision making....that I wouldn't actually be here. I guess I can thank stupidity for my life. Without it, my stupid parents would've never had me. .....Wow, that's fucked
Being lonely means that one doesn't feel satisfied with his social situation, or more precisely, feels the lack of meaningful connections to other individuals. It is the equivalent of hunger or thirst for social needs. Being intelligent doesn't rid a person of social needs. Intelligent people might assign more value to higher level needs, like self actualisation, but it is said, that one can only be as happy, as the lowest level need left unsatisfied. Also no quantity of any substitute can eventually satisfy a need. (Like eating against fatigue. You can delay it, but eventually your body needs to rest.)
The more intelligent a person is, the more selective of their peers for this fulfillment they tend to be, and at the same time, the amount of people existing with the same or higher level of intelligence decreases, the higher one stands on the scale, which reduces the odds of encountering them. (It is not necessarily the same level of "intelligence" people seek in others, but rather the same "mindset", but that is to some degree correlating with a persons intelligence. Like an interest in deep philosophy or highly scientific stuff only arises, once one is able to understand it.)
Intelligent people are often misunderstood by less intelligent ones, and therefor get to be missjudged and discriminated.
This most prominently occures at child age, with classmates, but also with their own parents. Early signs of that is introversion, which is a defense mechanism. Such children need to be treated even more carefully, which is usually even more difficult for their parents. They are prone to acquire social deficits, maybe never reaching social maturity, usually resulting in social anxiety, causing them to distance them selfs from other people instinktively. Their need for security is overpowering thier social needs.