More Intelligent People Prefer To Have Fewer Friends
One of the most popular stereotypes about exceptionally intelligent people is that they generally They tend to interact with fewer people and find pleasure in moments of solitude Of course, it is just a stereotype, and it is clear that there can be many people with a great intellect who are also especially sociable and who like to interact with many people whom they know little.
However, a study by the London School of Economics in collaboration with Singapore Management University indicates that this myth could reflect a real statistical trend.
Specifically, this research has found a negative correlation between people’s IQ and their propensity to spend time interacting with others That is to say, the most intelligent individuals do not need to have a very active social life to feel good and, in fact, they can be upset if they are forced to do so.
This trend is the opposite of that which occurs in people with low intelligence or with an IQ very close to the population average, judging by the results of the statistical analysis. In this sense, those who show greater intelligence go against the grain.
What did the research consist of?
The study carried out by this team did not focus exactly on the issue of intelligence, but rather on how a set of variables affects the feeling of satisfaction with the life one leads. That is, with what we could call “happiness.”
Psychologists Satoshi Kanazawa and Norman Li analyzed a large-scale survey of about 15,000 people between the ages of 18 and 28 and point to the fact that, in general, The level of satisfaction with one’s own life tends to be high in people with a more active social life while it decreases in people who live in more densely populated areas.
A rarity among the most intelligent people
However, when they focused on studying people with a higher IQ, they saw that in these people the correlation between happiness and frequency of social interactions was negative. Contrary to what happened with the rest of the population, especially intelligent people who interacted more with other people showed lower levels of satisfaction than those who had more time alone.
That is to say, judging by these results, the most intelligent people tend to be more satisfied with their lives if they have few social interactions with others, which would mean that if they could choose, they would prefer to interact less often and with fewer people. While respondents generally valued the possibility of interacting with many people (as long as it was not in overcrowded conditions), more intelligent individuals did not seem to show this need.
Why is this happening?
Kanazawa and Li take the perspective of evolutionary psychology to explain why the most intelligent people seem to go against the grain of others when it comes to valuing an active social life.
According to his explanation, based on the call savanna theorythis phenomenon may have to do with the way in which the brain of our evolutionary lineage has been evolving over the last few million years.
When the large brain that defines the genus began to form Homothe life of the species that made it up had to take place in large open spaces, similar to savannas with scattered groves of trees, in which the population density was minimal and it was necessary to live all day with other members of the family or tribe to be able to live. survive.
However, More intelligent individuals would be better able to adapt to challenges on their own and adapt to new situations without the help of others, so being constantly accompanied by others would lead to fewer benefits. Hence, they did not show the same propensity to be constantly accompanied and even tended to seek more moments to be alone.
