Evolution Made Really Smart People Long to Be Loners
Research finds highly intelligent individuals prefer to socialize less than the rest of us. I recently read a short article by Sarah Sloat. Sarah is a writer based in Brooklyn. She has previously written for The New Republic, Pacific Standard, and McSweeney's Internet Tendency. I like to socialize so hopefully that doesn’t cast doubts on my intelligence. Sarah writes, psychologists have a pretty good idea of what typically makes a human happy. Dancing delights us . Being in nature brings us joy . And, for most people, frequent contact with good friends makes us feel content. That is, unless you’re really, really smart. In a 2016 paper published in the British Journal of Psychology , researchers Norman Li and Satoshi Kanazawa report that highly intelligent people experience lower life satisfaction when they socialize with friends more frequently. These are the Sherlocks and the Newt Scamanders of the world — the very intelligent few who would be happier if they were left al