What Makes Smart People More Happy? More "Alone" Time

Psychologist have studied for years about what makes people happy in their lives, and how to increase life satisfaction.   Studies  date back to  our ancient ancestors.  They use what is referred to "Savanna Theory of Happiness" to explain findings of tests and analysis of a large national survey involving 15,000 adults ages 18-28.

  They find that people who live in more densely populated areas tend to report less satisfaction with their lives overall.  And they found that the more social interaction with close friends, the greater they report self happiness.

Then they found that life satisfaction who live in densely populated areas was twice as high for individuals with low IQ than for high IQ individuals.  And more intelligent individuals were less satisfied with life if they socialized with their close friends more frequently.  The findings suggest 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 other long term objectives.  For example, think about really intelligent people you might know.  Maybe the person is a writer working on the Great American Novel, or a human rights lawyer working on a program to protect vulnerable people.  To them, the time they spend on social interaction detracts them from pursuit of their goals, which affects their overall satisfaction with life.

And think about intelligent people you know who have worked long hours and days during their working careers on projects that are very important to them, then they reach "retirement age".  They stop working, and realize they don't have an adequate social circle to help them enjoy their retirement time.  Often these people will continue working through their lifetime on projects that were important to them. 

We are all social creatures.  But the amount of social activity that makes us happy can vary. And this "Savanna Theory of Happiness" is an explanation for the different in happiness in high and low intelligent people.

Now that's sure an interesting theory to meditate on.