Smart people want fewer friends. That’s what the research says. Published research in the British Journal of Psychology no less.
It’s no secret, and in fact it has been proven countless times, that having friends and interacting with them regularly helps with people’s happiness and feelings of well-being. Friends are as beneficial to your health as quitting smoking, and isolated people run twice the risk of dying from heart disease than those with a solid circle of friends.
But this new research (taken from 15,000 participants aged 18-28) found that shrinking the friendship circle made the smarter ones in the group happier.
Smart people don’t like too many people it seems. Why would you, if you had to constantly correct some “friends” pronunciation of cerebral?
The Savannah Theory of Happiness, conducted by evolutionary psychologists Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics and Norman Li of Singapore Management University, has gained a lot of traction and attention with The Washington Post this week calling this type of modern social friendship behaviour “Paleo Happiness”.
Like the Paleo diet, according to The Washington Post this is another Paleo theory that has its origins in “the idea that our bodies are best adapted to the environment of our earliest ancestors.”
Back in the Paleo days, caves were homes, communication was via iGrunt and humans needed each other to survive. Friends were useful as well as great to bore with another story of that lion kill near the waterhole. There were no cities, just groups of people – around 150 – living their entire lives together. Being social, helping with hunting and fighting off predators, was essential for surviving another day.
Top Comments
Well that's good to know, I thought the reason I only had a few friends was because I was an obnoxious boring know it all, but it turns out I'm just super smart and ahead of my time. I'll make sure I point this out to people at parties who make the mistake of approaching me, no doubt my superior intelligence will make them beat a hasty retreat! Hee hee!
Well I just saw big fat Greek wedding 2 where main character can barely breathe without all her relatives, but not a friend in sight, there's someone who needs more friends (at least one outside her own culture to gain another perspective) and way less family. I saw this movie with a friend myself who I like a lot but after reading this article I may have to cull her! Hee hee.
Well I don't feel I have enough friends actually. However I have finally got about 5 friends who I really click with. They are all seperate friends. In the past at times I've felt like I had a lot of nice friends but not a lot in common. I finally have these ones who I feel I have a lot in common with so that's very nice. I do agree that the quality is better than the quantity.