Ignorance is bliss is a quote that I really like. Another maybe lesser known one by Earnest Hemingway which states the same logic but in a different way is “Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know”. This idea is something that I always pondered and have been curious about. To me I can see where people would have the argument that more intelligent people will usually be the more successful in life, thus being happier. However, one must think how that person was able to become more successful. Usually, in my opinion of having more anxiety in looking ahead as to what is to come. To me anxiety can be a double edged sword, as it causes stress about all the worrying, but that person will usually do what they need to do with this foresight in mind. Now, this is all just my opinion and this is not me saying people of lesser intelligence don’t experience stress or anxiety. But, this has been my reasoning to why these quotes would make sense.
While researching the facts behind it, I found an interesting article in the NY Times. In the article it discussed studies that were done in which a group of people took tests on subjects ranging from grammar to humor. The studies suggested that incompetent people were unlikely to realize they were incompetent. The article attributed this to the incompetent’s person’s lack of self-monitoring. This was shown when the participants in the lowest quartile severely overestimated how they did. On, the contrary the most able participants underestimated their abilities. This was believed to be that way because the highest scorers believed everyone was performing as well, which is known as the “false consensus effect”. However, when these participants graded their peers they changed their own personal evaluation to better suit how they did. Surprisingly, when the less competent graded their peers they did not change their opinion of their score and some even inflated theirs.
Since I started this with two quotes I feel after reading this study that the most appropriate quote is one by Charles Bukowski.
Well I’m glad to see another person also enjoys those quotes as much as me. That is refreshing as well that my intuition on anxiety and intelligence seemed to be accurate. The evolutionary trait aspect is one that I didn’t consider and I find quite interesting. To me it seems very plausible and I would imagine there to be some legitimacy behind it
Nicholas,
kudos to you sir for utilizing 3 of my favorite quotes. I highly enjoyed your post and the article you shared. But your thoughts on my anxiety got me to wondering: do more intelligent people have higher anxiety/worry more than the ‘typical human being’? I found this, which you may find interesting. Apparently, high anxiety disorders, though potentially damaging, indicate significantly higher levels of intelligence. So essentially, ‘smart people drive themselves crazy.’ I wonder if its not an evolutionary trait…along the lines you said of those with more worry sometimes being more successful, what if those with more worry have it because throughout the ages its helped us survive?