Solitude

The Sun/The Moon

Life satisfaction, what does that mean? Good question is it not? For yours truly, restlessness is part of the equation but many times, solitude works in reacquiring balance in one's life without question. Less noise in the system applies as it seems solitude is more than just apt according to the Big Think article titled Why very smart people are happiest alone.

In a 2016 published study about how our ancestral needs impact our modern feelings, researchers uncovered something that will surprise few among the highly intelligent. While most people are happier when they’re surrounded by friends, smart people are happier when they’re not.

The savanna theory — also called the “evolutionary legacy hypothesis” and the “mismatch hypothesis” — posits that we react to circumstances as our ancestors would, having evolved psychologically based on our ancestors’ needs in the days when humankind lived on the savanna.

150 seems about right ...

The study found that people, in general, were less happy in areas of greater population density. The report’s authors see this as support for the savanna theory because we would naturally feel uneasy in larger groups if — as evidence they cite suggests — our brains evolved for functioning in groups of about 150 people:

• Comparing the size of our neocortex to other primates and the sizes of the groups in which they dwell suggests the natural size of a human group is 150 people (Dunbar, 1992).
• Computer simulations show that the evolution of risk aversion happens only in groups of about 150 people (Hintze, Olson, Adami, & Hertwig, 2013).
• The average size of modern hunter-gatherer societies is 148.4 people (Dunbar, 1993).
• Neolithic villages in Mesopotamia had from 150–200 people (Oates, 1977).
• When a group of people exceeds 150-200 people, it will tend to break into two in order to facilitate greater cooperation and reciprocity among its members (Chagnon, 1979).
• The average personal network, as suggested by the typical number of holiday cards sent per person per year, is 153.5 people (Hill & Dunbar, 2003).

Any more than that, crazy comes into play.

The data they analyzed supports the assumption that good friendships — and a few good ones are better than lots of weaker ones — do significantly increase life satisfaction for most people.

In highly intelligent people, though, the finding is reversed: Smart people feel happier alone than when others, even good friends, are around. A “healthy” social life actually leaves highly intelligent people with less life satisfaction. Is it because their desires are more aspirational and goal-oriented, and other people are annoyingly distracting?

However, just in case this makes too much sense, the study also found that spending more time socializing with friends is actually an indicator of higher intelligence! This baffling contradiction is counter-intuitive, at least. Unless these smart people are not so much social as they are masochistic.

Works for me. :)

Blade Runner ...