D Students Can Be Happy Too

Crankiness in older people may be a sign of intelligence. But being smart doesn't make you happy.

Scottish researchers sought to answer whether people who performed well on IQ tests at about age 11 ended up happier in old age. After gathering data on over 400 people born in 1921, their answer was that the two are completely unrelated. Being smart -- whether at age 11 or at age 79 -- has no impact on whether you're happy.

There is some good news for people who start off smart: your brain is likely to stay "cognitively vital" as you age.

The researchers hypothesized that greater intelligence may bring increased awareness of alternatives or missed opportunities, or desire for greater achievement ... neutralizing any benefit to being smarter to begin with.

Our own guess is that there is no netting out going on; the two factors are completely unrelated. You make your own happiness (with a genetic contribution from your parents); how well you perform on IQ tests doesn't impact that.

To complete the circle, could those smarter-than-average people who feel they didn't get everything they could have out of life be a little ... cranky? They'd offer further support to the cranky = smart research.

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Source: "Lifetime intellectual function and satisfaction with life in old age: longitudinal cohort study,"British Medical Journal, 2005;331:141-142 (16 July)