Of Course They Do

In an obvious result, research shows that smart people need more alone time to be happy:

There’s no fighting it – humans are innately social creatures. But while it’s widely accepted that socialising makes us happier, this might not be strictly true if you’re highly intelligent.

Evolutionary psychologists from Singapore Management University and the London School of Economics and Political Science found exactly this when they studied more than 15,000 young adults.

They concluded that, while people generally feel happier when they spend time with others, very smart people are an exception to this rule.

I found this interesting:

The study found that more intelligent people actually had lower life satisfaction the more frequently they socialised with friends – spending time with friends actually made them unhappy. But the researchers discovered that these highly intelligent participants actually spent more time socialising with friends.

I suspect that all the talk about how good it is for people to socialize causes highly intelligent people to falsely believe that interacting more with others will make them feel better and is better for one’s health. Now that studies are showing all this socializing not to be so healthy for the intelligent, maybe they will do less of it. Or not.