Having Less Friends Might Mean You're A Genius, According To This Study
22 March 2016, 14:30 | Updated: 8 May 2017, 17:09
Well, that explains a lot...
Okay so we've all had one of these moments:
You've made plans with your squad and, when the day comes, you simply cannot bear social interaction. Or worse yet, you've noticed yourself becoming more and more isolated from your friends and seem to find staying in on the weekends more enjoyable than going out with friends. Don't fear too much, you're probably a genius. Seriously.
A paper recently published by The British Psychological Society claims that:
More intelligent individuals experience lower life satisfaction with more frequent socialization with friends.
Satoshia Kanazawa and Norma Li
In normal speak?
People with higher IQs tend to derive less pleasure from social interaction. This isn't to say that social butterflies cannot be intelligent, of course. But rather, that intelligent people tend to be hardwired for the loner lifestyle. You may be perfectly content with very little social interaction, and that might say a lot about you.
image via pexels.com
This can come down to many different factors. For example, generalised anxiety has been proven to occur at a higher rate among people with above average intelligence. Feeling anxiety around friends or acquaintances is certainly something that might inspire you to crave alone time. This may also find you seeking the company of one or two close friends rather than large social groups.
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Then there's the fact that intelligent people tend to be more analytical than others, craving mental stimulation in a way that hanging around at the mall just won't satisfy. Come on! You can admit it. You've definitely found yourself being bored with the topic of conversation at the lunch table or ducked home early from a party because you just can't hack the mind numbing conversation.
Even fiction seems to have picked up the curious behaviors of intelligent people. Famously fictional loner geniuses include Lisa Simpson, Alex Dunphy, Gregory House, and Sherlock Holmes to name a few.
So, next time someone accuses you of being a total anti-social loner, you can probably just chalk it up to some mad genius on your part. Either you're a genius or Netflix is just back at it again with that killer, tv content.
