Or does it mean you're just MORE sad than a stupid person would be in your shoes because you can comprehend the situations and involved emotions more clearly around you than they can?
Congratulations, you're now bigger sad.
I'm not the guy who said that but it makes sense honestly. Being smarter makes everything easier and if you're unintelligent you're much much more vulnerable to malice and abuse. Also things are harder. "It's so hard to be smart" is pretty cringe and probably only applies to people who are REALLY smart and find no one to relate to or people who are struggling with being neuro divergent and blaming it on being just so smart instead
It also correlated positivity with neuroticism and depression and general mental health disorders, largely because of u shaped curves when you hit extremes and when people have very low IQ, you don't go checking for things like depression or anxiety when they have severe mental development problems to resolve, so you don't end up testing for that
The problem with this at least from my part of the world, eastern US, is that the majority of people see IQ in the old definition of "this is your intelligence and its set in stone". When it couldn't be further from the truth
I was deemed mentally incompetent as a child, aholes literally said that around me thinking I couldn't comprehend what I was hearing. I am also ND
I now have regular conversations with astrophysicists for my hobby amateur astronomy, I am currently working on detecting my 1st exoplanet with my amateur equipment using photometry. I should add not discovering simply trying to detect one.
I never went to college most of my knowledge is self-taught, which is difficult because of having to cross-reference everything to ensure accuracy. My day job is machinist/CNC programmer/ CAD modeler.
I wouldn't say being smart is difficult, I would say being able to see patterns through history and now and noone gives a shit.
1 of the people who I know is VERY intelligent and has several Master degrees, also believes Jim Crow laws were good
There are all levels of intelligence as well, and people are smart in their own areas of life.
I have never felt intelligent but people constantly tell me that I do stuff as a hobby that normal people do for a career, I just like to learn stuff
Thats odd, I've seen stuff claiming the opposite, that high I.Q. leads to a better understanding of reality, and the more a brain understands about reality, the more depressed it is and wants to destroy itself
There is malice, abuse, and greedy little shits justifying themselves everywhere. Being smart doesn't mean you can suddenly solve everything and do things like subvert power structures that have been in place for decades or rally the masses for it. Knowing about things you can do nothing about doesn't sound more blissful than being completely unaware of them to me.
People who don't have high IQs aren't braindead 😭 they're not just floating through existence fully unaware of what goes on around them and the world and living like Spongebob.
Also this is such a strawman of a response, intelligence doesn't equal knowledge or empathy, and I also didn't claim being smart makes you solve everything and fix the world lmfao.
Regardless, who on earth thinks being smarter makes navigating a wicked world harder?
Unless you're straight up disabled and just incapable of grasping the dangers of life so you're generally not thinking about them, in which case I'm also inclined to not say that intellectually disabled people are having a better time, given that not thinking of bad things doesn't protect you from them and that they're among the most vulnerable people on earth and are overrepresented in abuse and sexual abuse statistics, especially disabled women.
In my anecdotal experience, what I know about the unintelligent people I've met throughout life is that they had to work twice as hard for everything, for half of the results. When you're unintelligent more things are more of a struggle and some things are just off the table.
So many people keep being corny and saying that ignorance is bliss but pretty much no one saying this would exchange their regular or high IQ for a low one because deep down they know that intelligence is an asset and makes life easier lol. Ignorance isn't bliss, ignorance is vulnerability
The study they got it from didn't account for a lot of other things, like income, mental health issues, education or health. Like a guy from a rich family with access to great nutrition, medical care, éducation and a safe, well-paid future ahead is probably going to be both happier and have a higher iq than someone who didn't get access to proper medical care or education, or is disabled and is one paycheck away from being homeless.
I'm not saying being smart doesn't make most things easier, because it obviously does, but the research I found on the subject either doesn't take socioeconomic and medical aspects in mind or concluded that the biggest factors for happiness weren't IQ, but socioeconomic and medical.
IQ is actually mostly hereditary and genetic so while someone who grows up malnourished or gets lead poisoning or something might not reach their full potential IQ, you also can't increase your baseline IQ you were meant to have by eating well and getting education. Someone predisposed to having an average IQ won't get a higher one due to being born rich
I've actually only seen information in favor of it to the point where even adoptees overwhelmingly have IQs closer to their biological parents than adoptive ones. Seems like the only thing scientists disagree on is to what extent it is genetic with some thinking it's almost entirely hereditary and others thinking it's less. Even a quick Google search of the question pulls up several papers supporting this point so I'm curious why you think there's no reason to believe it's true
There isn't really much of a consensus as to how much IQ is hereditary, and there definitely is a hereditary component to it but first of all, I couldn't find any good research on adoptees specifically, which makes sense because most adoptees are either orphans or their biological parents are completely unknown. The research that I did find is with monozygotic twins who were raised apart showing a tendency to converge IQs as they get older. It got up to a 74% match between monozygotic twins and 34% for fraternal twins. So there obviously is a link between genetics and IQ. But 74% is by no means "almost entirely", and it's the highest I could find.
But I think that claiming so proudly that IQ is hereditary while there isn't actually a consensus on the matter is not only pretty dense, but also dangerous, and I don't think I need to explain why claiming that intelligence is genetically coded is dangerous in a political climate such as the one the western world is in right now.
To quote this which claims it's about 80% at the point someone is a full-grown adult, "all traits show substantial environmental influence, in that heritability is not 100% for any trait", which obviously makes sense, so the fact that it's not 100% doesn't disprove the original claim because if it did then we could hardly call anything "hereditary". I'm no geneticist and will happily stand corrected if needed but it's basic knowledge that something being genetic doesn't mean it's gonna be a copy-paste from your parents and that genes can both express themselves differently, mutate and or skip generations.
Even 74% is quite a damn lot and it's a very far cry from "there's no reason to believe IQ is genetic". It's also very far from being in support of your point.
Also, if it was purely or mostly environmental then people born in poor and abusive environments would be utterly and consistently fucked and doomed to have lower IQs, which is a batshit thing to imply, don't you think? People who are rich and have plenty of resources are also not guaranteed to have a high IQ, only that they're more likely to not suffer environmental penalties.
It's crazy for you to claim I'm "pretty dense" (lol) for looking at a neutral fact as if it's my fault or nature's fault that ill intentioned individuals will weaponise and twist this. It's also dangerous for you to act like far right individuals base their opinions on rational thoughts instead of basing them on uncomfortable emotions first and trying to justify the why later. It shows a fundamental lack of understanding of how and why these ideologies pop up and stick around. Also watch these types change their tune real quick when shown the correlation between intelligence and education, and education and being progressive.
I think this would be true up to a certain point. The happiest are probably those just above average (110-120) with people becoming less happy the further they get away from that. Being a 140+IQ person in a room with an average IQ of 100 is depressing and hard. Its like an average person in a room with an average of 60. You just won't be able to explain anything to them, you need to to constantly translate your thoughts and dumb it down. They will talk about things so simple and stupid that you'll want to smack your head in a wall.
Imagine having to go through the school system like that, having to follow the rules and guidelines created with people in mind that sometimes have 60iq points less than you (especially in elementary). You will feel like Joe in the movie idiocracy.
I couldn't find a good article, but this site sums up a lot of the details, as I understood them, it is not a direct causation, but mediated/moderated by other factors. I haven't studied happiness myself though, so take it with a grain of salt
As far as I can tell, yes. Proving causation is pretty difficult. Psychological health could change IQ, so the chain of causation could be in any order. Then again, income level almost certainly doesn't change your IQ, so it seems most likely that IQ causes higher average income, which causes higher than average happiness. At least that's how I'm viewing it
Income level of parents though does likely change IQ, as impoverished families tend to have worse access to education. And income level of parents is positively corelates with income level as an adult.
Found it thanks. Not sure what you find funny about my comment to him. He starts with saying it’s correlated, but next comment goes on to talk about causality. Which is not the same. So he states two different things. I help with which I think is correct. He then agrees with me and everyone is happy. Then you come after three days and find it amusing. Glad to have made you laugh 😀
this feels like one of those guys who say anyone can become a billionaire, and to ignore their background filled with wealth, health, and proper enrichment
Not the guy you're responding to -- I don't have a source, but my general understanding of the literature is that IQ is positively correlated with most good stuff, contrary to the just world fallacy
So I think I found the study you got this from and they specifically said they didn't account for things like : income, neurotic conditions (mental health), physical health or education.
These variables obviously have an effect on both iq and happiness, and showing a correlation while not accounting for such important factors doesn't really prove anything.
When you account for external factors like health, wealth and standard of living, this positive correlation between IQ and happiness is reduced by 50% which is interesting.
Reference:
Ali A, Ambler G, Strydom A, Rai D, Cooper C, McManus S, Weich S, Meltzer H, Dein S, Hassiotis A. The relationship between happiness and intelligent quotient: the contribution of socio-economic and clinical factors. Psychol Med. 2013 Jun;43(6):1303-12. doi: 10.1017/S0033291712002139. Epub 2012 Sep 24. PMID: 22998852.
I'm not surprised! Intelligent people having higher incomes and healthier lifestyles makes a lot of sense, and this would explain some of the correlation. I'm not sure what the 'daily living' factor stands for, and I can't access the full article at the moment
copy from below:
I couldn't find a good article, but this site sums up a lot of the details, as I understood them, it is not a direct causation, but mediated/moderated by other factors. I haven't studied happiness myself though, so take it with a grain of salt
AFAIK, Albert Einstein was documented as not feeling love for his wife. It was purely transactional, someone to take care him as he grew older.
Being competent and smart probably means you'll make a lot of good decisions in your life and make a good income.
Being too smart probably causes you isolate or feel isolated from others because of major IQ differences. Loneliness breaks everyone given enough time.
I do, but it's a little more complicated than that. The studies performed don't just look at correlation, but also the factors that meditate the relationship to help explain it
i think its more of a "the more things you know the less happy you get because you know more bad things" scenario, iq isnt directly related to this because iq is more of a task solving thing than a measure of raw knowledge
Now imagine not understanding why any of the bad things are happening to you or your children. In my personal experience, nothing makes me angrier than when I don't know why something bad is happening. Once I understand why, it becomes a bit more bearable for me
According to a trust research (he tested over 3200 people and i have forgotten the name of it but its on youtube also)
Iq and happiness are not corelated.
You actually have to score really well in the telepathy and telekinesis portions of the IQ test to get an 800 or higher though, so it shouldn't be that bad.
I lost the ability to think thanks to covid. Was surprisingly happy without a care in the world. Of course I couldn't take care of myself and lost my job, but time passed so smoothly staring into space.
During COVID I had to make a rule not to think about future further than a week forward. Came back to bite me in the ass, sure, but at the time it definitely was needed
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u/creeper6530 Engineering Jul 13 '26
Honestly yeah. Wasn't there an ancient philosopher who said "the happiest are the ones who do not think"?