Why do intelligent people tend to be less happy?

not enough memes

>>8197181
What is your reasoning or source and how do you define "tend to be" and "less happy"?

They realize that life has no purpose and can see past the artificial and materialistic drive of society.

Among reasons already posted, the cognitive operating mode is one of intricate analysis, which can lead to absorbed self-rumination (aka anxiety) or the aforementioned realization of purposelessness. There's also the fact that nature intended that we be emotional systems, focused on a drive to acquire and fulfill (in neurotransmitter terms, you have mainly dopamine among others), to be socially secure (testosterone, oxytocin) etc. It's a matter of cognitive neuropsychology afterall.

>>8197181
Why is anyone who is somehow off the norm unhappy? Because life feels to them like it's not tailored for them.

You are 2.10 m tall: Clothes don't fit, you hit your head a lot, develop a hump because you are walking funny all the time, you feel like everybody is staring at you

You are a 150 kg person: Seats are too small, there are no clothes for you, everybody thinks you are smelly, undisciplined and lazy (I know it's true), you are constantly confronted with social pressure to do something about your weight

You are a foreigner in some country: You are struggling with the language, the behaviour and cultural facets seem strange to you, nobody shares your mindset and views.

You are very intelligent: Many forms of entertainment bore you, people think you are an asshole for feeling dragged down by your peers, nobody seems to care for the things that deeply interest you.

It's by the way not like in OP's pic, particularly stupid people actually feel on average very unhappy as well (actually even more than intelligent people). This is often overlooked, as people just assume that simple people can't feel "complex" things as depression.

Being surrounded by people who are just like you makes you feel good, makes you feel understood. That's why culture exists, that's why nationality exists and that's why we are drawn into subcultures that selects members more specifically. I mean, this whole site is dedicated to that urge.

>>8197250
>are 2.10 m tall
i will take being 2.10m in a hearthbeat than the 5'7-5'8 manlet I am right now.

>>8197181
Confirmation bias. There's no study that demonstrates a correlation between IQ and happiness.

>>8197259
there is, just not the inverse one OP describes


http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8905934&fileId=S0033291712002139

>Results Happiness is significantly associated with IQ. Those in the lowest IQ range (70–99) reported the lowest levels of happiness compared with the highest IQ group (120–129). Mediation analysis using the continuous IQ variable found dependency in activities of daily living, income, health and neurotic symptoms were strong mediators of the relationship, as they reduced the association between happiness and IQ by 50%.

>>8197181
They're not. If you're too stupid to find what makes you happy...then you're stupid.

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Cobain believed in your theory OP. That is what the song "Dumb" is about; "Very Ape" somewhat too.

>>8197250
That's honestly the lamest list of shit to be depressed about that I've ever fucking heard. The world's not tailored for anyone, you ass clown. Why should it be? On your point about intelligent people...
>Many forms of entertainment bore you
Except video games, fantasy novels and tabletops, anime, and very raunchy porn, and that's only if you're thinking of "entertainment" as consumed media. There's also chess, historical literature, fiction, modding, and drinking. These are all things that very intelligent people are known to enjoy.
>people think you are an asshole for feeling dragged down by your peers
That does kinda sound like an "asshole." You can make the case that you're justified in being an asshole, but you are still an asshole.
As long as you have other redeeming qualities as a person, most people can look past that.
>nobody seems to care for the things that deeply interest you.
Kinda a non-issue. Everyone enjoys booze.

>>8197306
>chess, historical literature, fiction, modding, and drinking
What if I don't enjoy those things? I honestly prefer things that bring instant pleasure. Well, drinking is okay.

>>8197306
>video games
>fantasy novels
>anime
You're a brainlet.

>>8197306
>everyone enjoys booze

Retards enjoy booze. Smart people see it for what it is. Poison that allows insecure and unconfident people to act out their thoughts that they don't have the balls to do sober.

>>8197337
>if people like things I don't like, they must be stoopid
k

>>8197191
/thread

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>>8197181
Because they found the problem but didn't find sulution yet.

>>8197306
This is honestly the most normie post I've ever seen. Kys

>>8197306
>Except video games, fantasy novels and tabletops, anime, and very raunchy porn, and that's only if you're thinking of "entertainment" as consumed media. There's also chess, historical literature, fiction, modding, and drinking. These are all things that very intelligent people are known to enjoy.
Most of those I don't enjoy, really. They actually sound exactly like the kind of stupid shit that bores me. Also many of them are sort of obscure and associated with being a loser. Now, I know that it's stupid to think that way, but that's just the kind of pressure you get from society. Especially as teenagers, people are pretty stressed out by stuff like that.

>That does kinda sound like an "asshole."
So I assume you never were in a situation like that. Just high school, physics class, nothing fucking happens, you are bored with the schedule and everybody seems to be retarded and struggles with every little thing. It's annoying, objectively. I can't do anything about it, it just fucking sucks. Of course you can just slow down a little and relax, and I did exactly that. But looking back at it I SHOULD have been the asshole you are talking about. It didn't make me a better person to just ignore what I need and what I want. It was pathetic, that's all.

>Kinda a non-issue. Everyone enjoys booze.
I don't. I used to as a teenager when it was new and whatnot, but now I just don't like it.

>The world's not tailored for anyone, you ass clown. Why should it be?
It is. Why? You are the target group. People don't aim for some <5% of the population, they aim for the big, stupid blob. The whole world seems much more appealing when it seems to you like everybody wants specifically you. Also society as a whole favours those who do whatever the fuck everyone else does.

If those ideas occur alien to you, then you actually might be part of the average.

>>8197347
akschully there was a study that said intelligent people drink more. Probably to dull out all the stupidity in the world

>>8197400
Do you about narcissistic personality disorder?

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>>8197410
show me that study. I bet intellingent there are faggots above iq100

>>8197423
This article links a few studies http://mentalfloss.com/article/66076/do-smarter-people-drink-more-what-5-studies-say

Some are complimentary, some are a bit weird and don't agree. Take it as you will.

>>8197430
quid prodest, n'est c'pas?
2ch-hk/sci/src/348625/14678822705870.webm
(put the dot instead of dash)

>>8197437
Im not clicking on that shit nigga

>>8197418
Right, there are no actually intelligent people on this planet, they are really just as stupid as everyone else plus some personality disorder to explain everything that sticks out. That's exactly what I mean: As much as society pro forma claims to tolerate and even embrace the different, the reality of things is: If you don't enjoy these things, there is something seriously wrong with you! Society as a whole just wants to fit you into the average so bad that it actually forces disorders onto you. You are not different, you are broken and now adjust, you are making us feel awkward! The whole love for variety stuff is just for heartwarming television moments. It's unsubstantial horseshit.

Being different (and I don't mean that in any dramatic superhero-kind of way) means being on your own. It means to make sense of all this bullshit for yourself, while everything else revolves around making most of the people feel at ease at the expense of everyone else (often very literally).

>>8197438
there's Craig Venter telling that scientific literature is full of crap and completely unreliable. So now if you're claiming something, you should make the research yourself. And so should I, lol

>>8197451
>there's Craig Venter telling that scientific literature is full of crap and completely unreliable.
I'm assuming he has a paper proving this?

>>8197456
I heard of an official research about papers in biology telling that about 40% of peer-reviewed stuff doesn't verify, 7% of it... hold it.. can't be tested in principle.

>>8197469
>biology
>science
biology is filled with women, that's where the 50% of shit comes from

>>8197475
seems legit. the other half should come from guys then.

>>8197269
this

>>8197250
>150kg
>small
is it just me or is this not small. or is this american small

>>8197306
Biggest retard in the thread right here

>>8197181
Society does not generally like to be challenged in the mental realm.

Today's course is on pleasure. Television and food go hand in hand, quite literally. People want to feel good through substances like alcohol and marijuana, binge eat, and have sex. Then they want their television to simulate the same thing with attractive and plastic looking people.

If you are wondering why you are being pushed out of the herd, it is because thinking is something reserved for when civilization is prospering.

We ARE prospering, but because we also love planned obsolescence we perpetually act like everything is desperately about to collapse which upkeeps the work force, the military, industry, and linear thinking.

Either utilize the intellect you have or hide it well.

>>8197250
nah being 2.10 m would be the shit. All those people who complain about clothes and airplanes are just assholes looking to subtle-brag.

>>8197535
>Television and food go hand in hand, quite literally
I can see that you are also one of those that don't like to be challenged in the mental realm.

>>8197539
Smart phones.

>>8197250
this was a good read, thanks man.

>>8197191
Unless you are mega-intelligent, in which case you see past that as well.

simple pleasures and misteries are ruined by vast knowledge

you will never walk through a winding forest wondering if there are spirits inside the trees talking to each other

you will never feel that.

science has ruined humanity

>>8197267
>highest IQ group (120–129)

So they didn't even get geniuses?

>>8197618
That's what shrooms are for m8erino.

>>8197625
yes good goyim, ruin your life with my magic jew shrooms.

>>8197446
what youre thinking of is called being selfish and consumed by your own mind

>>8197666
Hey, you asked for a solution, and I provided. If you're dissatisfied take it up with customer service.

Rrte relleke doeolekkdkd dldoeole dleleoe. Dlee test

>>8197618
Watch some videos of Feynman and Sagan. Science is the path to some amazing trips.

Without it you will never walk through a winding forest wondering which species feed on the flora. You won't wonder about the predator-prey relationships in that forest. You won't wonder about how photosynthesis works at the atomic level. You won't wonder about the learning and foraging patterns of the animals in that habitat.

Science makes the world trippy as hell.

>>8197181
more shit to worry about

>>8197676
hahaha fucking keked

>>8197181
Because they realize all of life is essentially chasing a chemical high that your brain produces when you do something that is evolutionary advantageous

They're not it's a special snowflake canard. If you're clever enough to fuck you feels, you're clever enough to unfuck them.

>>8197181
Have any evidence for that or are you just going to post a picture from a shitty cartoon?

>>8197693
Yeah but the fact that you can learn and understand these things ruins it for me, although that's amazing in its own right it's just not the same

There is no mystery

>>8197757

One mystery that still seems to escape you is that of proper punctuation and grammar. Perhaps there is still something out there for you.

>>8197757
I you fail to see the joy of discovery, then obviously science is not for you. Which makes me wonder why you're even hear.

>>8197446
This is correct
>>8197673
You are an idiot.

>>8197761
hay grammurz is herd.

>>8197761
what do you mean?

>>8197763
I just said that's amazing in its own right

>>8197733

In other words, smart/educated people understand that nothing /actually/ matters, and that we are all just doing an ultimately pointless animal monkey dance chasing the aforementioned gratification. And yet we are generally slaves to our animal bodies and so even understanding the pointlessness of it all, we will still, to some degree, do the nonsense and jump through the hoops anyway, even (in most cases) when we really underderstand that it's all for nothing and you yourself will be dead in a few decades on the outside, at which point most especially, all of this will /really/ cease to mean anything, especially from your own point of view. And understanding these contradictory truths leads one toward a kind of depressed resignation about the world.

Is the above a fair rephrase/characterization of what you really meant, anon? Because if so, the above absurd view of the world is one that I happen to agree with.

>>8197250
>nobody shares your mindset and views.
idk, everyone else here where I live seems to share decent republican ideas

>>8197605
Enlighten us then!

>>8197763

This. I don't understand how somebody who genuinely has such a cognitive capacity to discover could possibly be unhappy.

I'd venture to guess that unhappiness in this case is a result of a lazy dissonance. You're overweight, socially inept, or perhaps just not that bright, and so you've started to convince yourself that all of your problems stem from you being more intelligent than everybody else. Some part of you, however, realizes that you're really just a sham and not really deserving of the label you want to attach to yourself, causing you to be bitter and unhappy.

>>8197410
>study
what he actually means is a bullshit "news" article that validates the destructive behaviour of the common human trash

>>8197306
>everyone enjoys booze
god tier bait
10/10

>>8197768
But isn't the next step to this realizing that pointlessness and your inevitable death doesn't affect your capacity to experience, feel, learn, wonder, appreciate etc.?

>>8197799

Everyone always tries to put this blase "positive" existential spin on things around this point of the discussion, and the older I get (I'm past 30, now), the more I am annoyed by the attempt. There is something to it which is deeply disingenuous.

>>8197795
>what he actually means is a bullshit "news" article
>bullshit "news" article
Would you retards stop doing this? The article LINKS several studies. I'm not going to organizing and posting them when someone has already done the work for me. Besides, most or those articles are behind a paywall, and I bet you faggots don't even have access to it, since you're not even a part of a university.

>>8197802
>nuffin matters we gonna die anyways :((((

>>8197811

Now try it without greentext.

Although they themselves are not in a position to deeply understand it, it turns out that the edgy 16 year olds really were right all along.

>>8197818
Why is being a bunch of chemicals that realizes it's a bunch of chemicals inherently negative?
Because you have the ability to imagine omniscience or other realities but not able to experience them?

>>8197181
They feel like they have more responsibility.

When you are dumb, you can always rely on someone smarter than you to solve major problems, if you even see the problems at all.
Smart people see every problem, and know that there are only a small number of people even capable of solving them.

>>8197216
Your science and shallow rhetoric is why women hate you.

>>8197269
The question is whether happiness is worth having, not whether happiness exists.

>>8197938
Sure it is. Your body needs 1800kcal a day of food, 2l of water, and at least 20% of daily recommended happiness juice, to keep it optimal.

>>8197949
That's basic sustenance; and happiness through sensual satisfaction isn't happiness at all.

>>8197955
Wow you're just a kid. Don't worry you'll understand in time. Just eat your veggies, and keep your chin up.

>>8197181
I'm a miserable autistic piece of shit and also a retard college dropout that struggled to finish high school. I also hate my job.

So you are mistaken.

>>8197250
If nationality holds such importance, could someone patriotic to their country become depressed if their country became flooded with peoples from another country who then applied pressure from their culture onto the culture of the country the person in question feels patriotic towards?

>>8198015
Only if you're an ape.

PEOPLE WHO DESCRIBE THEMSELVES AS INTELLIGENT, ESPECIALLY IN A WAY THAT PUTS THEMSELVES ABOVE OTHERS, IS A REFLECTION OF AN INFLATED EGO/UNSUSTAINABLE SELF, WHICH IS SYNONYMOUS WITH MISERY

>>8198023
define ego

>>8198026
Gotta look out for number one
Which is healthy when regulated but we live in a society that breeds insecurity, where the ego has ridiculous expectations
i.e. everybody is supposed to be successful in capitalism, wherein someone has to be oppressed for some to be rich
such contradictions etc etc

>>8197962
I'm 25, and I've completely dismissed eating meat.
You're a charlatan and bigot.

>>8198023
You don't have to yell. I can hear you just fine.

>>8198023
this, well said.

>>8198023
This.

Either they're hoping to find some justification for their misery:

>"I'm depressed; It must be from the fact I'm so smart!"

or finding a silver lining to their problems.

>"I'm depressed, but at least that's confirmation that I'm smarter than my peers!"

Happiness and intelligence aren't mutually exclusive. Thinking one is correlated with another is a bad religion.

>>8198323
Adding a few things to this; leaving the "intelligence = misery" ideology behind is a tricky task because any alternatives are too undesirable.

If happiness and intelligence are linked together, that would mean that gaining one means losing the other.

If they aren't, then that just means you've been deluding yourself to think that you're a troubled genius. It means that you're not as smart as you thought you were, and that the only defining trait you had was just something you wish you had, leaving you with no other redeeming qualitities, and as a result, without an identity.

I've always been more intelligent than most people without ever being genius-tier (IQ ~135), and I've been depressed on and off for the last few years, so I can offer my perspective.

It sounds pretentious, but I get the feeling my depression is a more intellectual depression than other people's. I actually had (/am having) an existential crisis, where everything I did felt meaningless and I was unable to derive any real satisfaction or pleasure from anything. I'm an atheist, and unfortunately I've found that has made my life utterly without purpose. The only way I've been able to recover this is to just literally ignore these thoughts and feelings when they come up and hope that one day I forget them completely, because if I take the time to think them through properly then I just end up in misery. I dream of a world where I go back to my ignorant self, where I can watch sports as if they were life and death scenarios, where I can be proud of whatever small difference I can make in the world, and so on.

So I don't think depression is necessarily more common in more intelligent people, but it is maybe harder to treat. The most common psychotherapy, CBT, works on the basis of helping people to identify and challenge their unrealistic negative thoughts about themselves, others, or the world. But what if these thoughts aren't unrealistic? What if they can't be challenged? How do you treat someone who is convinced that life has no meaning?

Entrapment and psychological overhead of placing relevance in things other people allow themselves to learn to ignore and accept. Whether this is maladaptive, and how it ultimately pans out for an individual, depends.

Usually more intelligent people, people of a rounded overall intelligence, see passed the bullshit.

>>8199289

Bipolar here.

In the absence of associated irrational thoughts CBT isn’t going to be any good.

Plus, 'what kind of psychotherapist is even going to be able to fully understand my thoughts?'

Now that’s arrogant.

>but true

>>8199289

Hello.

>How do you treat someone who is convinced that life has no meaning?

Well, meaning is essentially emotional association.

We are hard wired to attribute meaning and value to certain things, however we typically have little trouble applying meaning to novel phenomena in reference to years of environmental programming.

Are any aspects of your internal world view positively associated?

What do you like, anon?

>>8197190
Miserable cunt

>>8199314
It's not that I don't think anyone can understand my thoughts, it's that once they do understand my thoughts, I don't see how they can be happy (unless they're religious).

>>8199329
My world view is becoming more and more neutral. Without some set of universal ethics, nothing is really good or bad, it just 'is'. Obviously I don't like to see people in pain, especially if they're a friend or family, and I'd like to have a positive impact on the world, but I'm getting more and more detached from those sorts of goals. I still try to act in an altruistic way, but I don't derive any sort of satisfaction from it anymore.

The things I liked growing up were things like sports, music, cinema and reading. I still do them, but, again, they feel a bit pointless now and I find it harder to get fully immersed in them. I had a relationship once that gave me satisfaction for a while, but after it ended I started to look deeper into the realities of relationships and that started to lose meaning too (in fact, getting dumped is what triggered this depression - although I've not had another relationship since then, so maybe that's part of the problem). The only thing that's given me a real sense of satisfaction over the last few years is working with children. Spending time in that world reminds me of when I was that age and everything was so much simpler. It's so easy to bring real joy and happiness to them, and I can forget about my own problems for a while when I'm with them. I just don't know if that's a tenable long-term option though, I'll need to 'grow up' and have a serious career one day, and working with children pays terribly.

>>8197181
define intelligent
define happy
>>>/his/

>>8199846

Define pain.

>pain doesn't exist

>>8199848
There is some sort of scientific consensus on pain we can work on to improve science. It's not the case for happiness and intelligence.

>>8197799
>And yet we are generally slaves to our animal bodies

This doesn't cease to be true. You might be cognitively aware of how silly most things are but you're still always going to be scared when you face social disapproval, death, loss of things you enjoy etc.

>>8197773
Because there are plenty of other considerations that factor into someone's level of happiness. We're humans, we desire and need social approval to thrive (you may be a genius with a grand curiosity about the world but if you feel unloved and alone it will seriously demotivate you, whether you like it or not). Moreover you can try to better yourself regarding being overweight, socially inept etc. but some things are genuinely out of your control and realizing that you're effectively powerless in your own life is also greatly demotivating. If you're intelligent you're also more likely to be heavily critical of yourself and those around you, which would not only lower your own esteem but also leave you fairly uninspired.

>>8199895

No anon, pain is entirely subjective and has to be measured by self reported data.

There is no test for it; no objectivity at all.

You have been fucked in the ass and now you have to wait until your anus heals, before posting again.

>>8201388

>you're still always going to be scared when you face social disapproval, death, loss of things you enjoy etc.

Apparently not this anon:

>>8200699

>>8197191
Anon. If you can't accept that medium and situation, then you are a pseudointellectual brainlet.
>>8197250
>intelligent
>being bored of x
If you have a tendency of not being normal, then you will try to avoid those things. What a brainlet.
>>8199846
This. Why do you keep spamming these /his/lit/-tier threads on /sci/? Fuck off already.

>>8201396
>I've never taken a biology class but still wanted to post
Just because we can't evaluate it doesn't mean it can't be defined. And you missed the point.

>>8198015
ask germany

>>8197666
I was severely depressed and nihilistic up until I started dabbling in psychedelics, most notably, LSD. Completely changed my views on life and helped me get to the degree of emotional stability that surpasses what most people I know have.
I tend to think in worst case just for the practical purpose of it which allows me to be better prepared and happily surprised more often then my peers. Shrooms were more like a drug for intoxication than a method or a tool to provide fundamental changes in my perception, but hey, its all relative to the individual so what worked for me may not work for you.

>>8197181
Because they realize that due to political correctness, the USA and Europe have transformed into socialist welfare states, where self-hating, intelligent white people aren't reproducing, but lower IQ blacks and Hispanics have high birth rates, and many live off welfare. We're literally heading for a socialist idiot-ocracy because of political suppression of free speech, and cultural patterns and legal systems designed to encourage the least capable members of society to breed. Enjoy an 20% white USA and Europe with an adv IQ of 80 by the year 2100.

>>8197446
If that was true, then wouldn't these "personality disorders" actually be the determining factors for intelligence?

And if not, then how would you compare someone who has a tendency to be unmotivated compared to someone who constantly tries to improve to impress other people. One will end up with extensive knowledge and the other will not. While they began at the same point, they do not end up in the same area

>>8197181
>Why do intelligent people tend to be less happy?

True statements:
>High IQ correlates with better memory
>High IQ correlates with Depression
>Depressed people remember the bad better than the good

My guess:
>Better memory means you don't forget/repress the bad shit that happens through your life as easily as other people, so it takes more out of you.

>>8203089
>high IQ correlates with depression
Source? Cause I'm pretty sure most studies show the contrary, see for instance >>8197267 or http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC544986/

>>8202973
America going to become North Brazil and Europe North Maghreb

>>8197181
They don't. It's a meme.

>>8197181
I'll tell you tomorrow

>>8197537
Its actually quite terrible. Youre too tall to be the right size foe most people, you hit your head on door frames, your feet hang off the bed a good foot (depends on country)

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>>8203621

>>8197678
Well said.
/thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj3bCXViNNM

BECAUSE IF YOU ARE NOT GOD, YOU ARE DUMB