It's a fact: Intelligent people have fewer friends Recently, psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics measured the happiness levels of 15,000 people with various IQ levels.
Intelligent people value friendships and relationships just like anyone else, but they tend to be more selective with how they spend their time. It isn't that they don't cherish friendships and frequent socialization occurrences, but they also cherish their personal pursuits.
Smart people are more likely to be loners.
Because of their interests and views on bigger ideas than the average person cares to think about, they don't seek out social validation because frankly, they don't need it. This means that they don't spend as much time socializing because it's just not as important to them.
Yes, it's true: New research says that introverts could have a higher IQ. Think you're a genius? Take this Mensa quiz to find out. Generally speaking, the more often people socialize with friends, the happier they feel.
This isn't necessarily true, and while not all quiet people are necessarily smart, highly intelligent people will often refrain from speaking if they are accessing a situation. They will take some time to think about what was said and prepare an adequate response, and they find silence better than pointless small talk.
For example, raw speed in processing information appears to peak around age 18 or 19, then immediately starts to decline. Meanwhile, short-term memory continues to improve until around age 25, when it levels off and then begins to drop around age 35.
Some psychologists believe that the ability to listen to another person, to empathize with, and to understand their point of view is one of the highest forms of intelligent behavior.
They try to think from various viewpoints. They try to understand how their actions affect everyone. Feelings happen in our brains and are connected to thoughts. Intelligence is about caring about what happens in the world around you, how you fit into it.
Research has shown that there is a high correlation between being intelligent and socially anxious. The higher your IQ, the higher the chance your social apprehension is higher than usual. Of course, that doesn't mean that your social anxiety should be classified as a disorder.
One of the ultimate reasons why intelligent people have fewer friends is a simple fact that they tend to listen more than they like to talk. In a group of friends, you'll find the introverted genius sitting back, observing those around them, listening, and trying to understand their thinking.
"The findings in here suggest (and it is no surprise) 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 some other longer term objective," she said. Think of the really smart people you know.
Science supports laziness
On average, people who are less physically active tend to be brainier than physically active people, according to a 2015 study published in the Journal of Health Psychology.
Spatial intelligence or picture smart is a quality that is perhaps the rarest of all the nine Howard Gardner categorized.
It is hypothesized that logical/mathematical abilities will be most frequently perceived as most valued by society and musical, bodily-kinesthetic, and naturalist intelligence will be perceived as least valued.
They conclude that humans reach their cognitive peak around the age of 35 and begin to decline after the age of 45. And our cognitive abilities today exceed those of our ancestors. “Performance reveals a hump-shaped pattern over the life cycle,” report the authors in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
That said, science has indicated that learning is most effective between 10 am to 2 pm and from 4 pm to 10 pm, when the brain is in an acquisition mode.
Anecdotally, smarter people do seem to live longer. Isaac Newton died in 1727 aged 84, the philosopher-mathematician Bertrand Russell lived to 97, while Nobel Prize-winning neurobiologist Rita Levi-Montalcini died in 2012 aged 103.
They successfully start each of their conversations with the right tone and energy. Smart people make eye contact, they pay attention to their body language, they ask smart questions, and they give compliments. They also make you laugh, they really listen, and they tell a great story.
Intelligent people, though, tend to be characterized by insecurity. They have a high level of personal response, reflection, and discretion. None of these things makes an impact. Plus, we live in a world where people still see insecurity as a negative characteristic.
While intelligence is, of course, a prerequisite of genius status, there are other things at play here – including creativity, self-awareness, and an innate ability to ask questions few others have ever asked.