Intelligence and Loneliness
25-Dec-16 3 Comments
Dr. Satoshi Kanazawa is a psychologist who courts controversy. He has gone into sufficient level of detail to explain why certain type of women are unattractive and predictably kicked off a good deal of protest in the process. [link, link]
While I personally haven’t looked at, not do I have any interest in looking at that aspect of his research, there was this other observation made by Dr. Satoshi which made me pause and think. It was about the link between intelligence and loneliness [click here for the research paper]. If my understanding of what I have read is correct, then Dr. Satoshi suggests an un-insignificant correlation between simplicity and stupidity. Less intelligent people are simple. They think simple thoughts and make more friends and are therefore less lonely and happier. Ignorance seems to be bliss indeed! They also seem to like the daily soaps more! There is a postulate which seems to negatively correlate IQ with affinity for watching the “saas – bahu” type of soaps. If you believe in the power law of distribution, then the below seems to be the reason why advertisers flock to buy ad spots during weekly soap opera runs.
It therefore seems that the following hypotheses shouldn’t be dismissed at first glance as outright heretics:
- Villagers are more satisfied with life and therefore happy
- Villagers who socialize more with each other are even more satisfied and therefore happier
- An intelligent villager seems to be an oxymoron
- It would be extremely difficult to spot an extremely intelligent individual in a very communal village.
- Intelligent folks are unhappy and lonely.
If leadership is a lonely place and if intelligent folks are unhappy and lonely, then it must mean that leadership is positively correlated with intelligence – which we generally know. However, I would be surprised if someone told me that all intelligent people are successful. Perhaps it is the weight of early expectations on sharp men and women (i.e. those endowed with high IQ), that seems to be making them gloomy.
I have however one question – if villagers are happier than their urban cousins, then why are they killing themselves? Is suicide so exhilarating? 😐
The Third I 
There are many factors that contribute to what is conventionally viewed as success in life, IQ being just one of them, and not even the most important.
And yes intelligent people don’t make many friends because they’re seen by ordinary folks as kind of aliens on earth.
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Hi Kaushal – Nice thought! It seems intelligence here is being correlated to career or market place success but it could be different than that. Many spiritual people are very simple yet (I would argue) quite intelligent. For example, a person once asked the Dalai Lama, does he ever feels lonely, to which he replied, “Never!” [Source: His book, The Art of Happiness]. I understand that the topic is quite debatable and generalizations shouldn’t be made.
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long time Kaushal! Do share your views on Demonetization and its impact
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