If you\u2019re perfectly happy having a very small circle of friends, it might be a sign that you\u2019re smart. A new study says that more intelligent people are better off with fewer friends. Yeah, this would have been a great thing to know in middle school.<\/p>\n
This information comes from a study published in the British Journal of Psychology. Researchers explain that, in many ways, humans are still innately suited to lead the sort of hunter-gatherer lifestyle our early ancestors enjoyed, and that things that would have made them happy still make us happy, too \u2014 it\u2019s a theory known as the \u201csavanna theory of happiness.\u201d In keeping with this, they found that people\u2019s overall happiness and satisfaction tends to decline in very densely populated areas, but that it tends to increase the more social interactions they have. In other words, we\u2019re more or less wired to be happy living a life where we interact extensively with a select group of people who are the only ones around.<\/p>\n
But it turns out that highly intelligent people don\u2019t follow this rule.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe effect of population density on life satisfaction was \u2026 more than twice as large for low-IQ individuals than for high-IQ individuals,\u201d the researchers explain, adding that \u201cmore intelligent individuals were actually less satisfied with life if they socialized with their friends more frequently.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, talking to your friends all the time actually makes smart people unhappy.<\/p>\n
So what is up with all this? Well, there are a few theories. It\u2019s possible that highly intelligent people are more likely to be focused on some other, non-social pursuit from which they derive more satisfaction than hanging out with friends. Which I suppose is possible, even though this implies smart people are also on the whole less lazy, which has not been my experience at all.<\/p>\n
Another explanation, however, goes back to that \u201csavanna theory of happiness\u201d we brought up earlier. If human brains really are best suited to living in a nomadic group of around 150 people, then modern life\u2026isn\u2019t really ideal, from the perspective of recreating the conditions most conducive for happiness. But researchers suggest it\u2019s possible that highly intelligent individuals are better able to adapt to modern life, and that they therefore are less bound to humanity\u2019s evolutionary predispositions. Which means less need for social interaction.<\/p>\n
Whatever the explanation might prove to be, this obviously doesn\u2019t mean smart people don\u2019t like having friends. But it does probably mean that they don\u2019t enjoy having too many \u2014 after all, keeping track of lots of people does usually involve, you know, talking to them. So if you\u2019re naturally more of a loner, congratulations! It might be a sign of intelligence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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