If you prefer to spend time alone, you might be smarter than you think!

Do you prefer to ditch a party to watch a movie at home? Or, you prefer to snuggle in your bed and read a book rather than heading out on a Friday night? Well, you might be labeled ‘anti-social’ by your friends but this trait indicates something about your personality.

According to a research done by researchers at Singapore Management University and London School of Economics, intelligent people prefer to spend ‘me-time’ than socialising with friends.

The researchers surveyed more than 15,000 individuals in the age group of 18 to 28 years . The analysis was done on factors including the participants’ score in an intelligence test, the population density of the area they lived in, how often they socialised and how satisfied they were in their life.

The research concluded that the participants who lived in less-populated areas were happy, but the ones with higher IQ who lived in the same area reported to be less satisfied in their lives. Not just this, most of the participants felt happier when they socialised with their near and dear ones. However, the intelligent people did not feel the same when they spent time with friends frequently.

The researchers based their findings on ‘the savanna theory of happiness’ which implies the idea that a person’s satisfaction in life is not just determined from what is happening in the present but it is also influenced by how our ancestors would have reacted to the same scenario.

To explain this theory in simple words, our ancestors preferred spending time with others and considered it essential for their survival and also in today’s life, people feel unhappy when isolated.

The evolutionary psychologists opined that people with higher IQ do not follow this pattern and are happy in their own company. Therefore, their brain is considered to be more adaptable and they tend to have ‘unnatural’ preferences such as being alone. The study indicated that intelligent people tend to feel less benefited from friendships.

So, if the word FOMO (fear of missing out) does not exist in your dictionary and you feel happier in your own company, you can surely thank your higher IQ and brag about it in your friend circle!

(All images used here are representational)