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It might seem obvious that, for most people, happiness is positively correlated with friendships. But a paper published last month in the British Journal of Psychology found one notable exception: Extremely intelligent people become less happy when they spend more time with their friends.
對大部分人來說，友情可能是一種正能量，可以帶給我們快樂。然而英國心理學雜志上個月刊登的文章中提到一種引起關注的例外：對于非常聰明的人，與朋友相見的時間越長，幸福感越低。
Researchers, led by psychology professor Norman Li from Singapore Management University, used evolutionary psychology to explain why some people are happier than others. They theorized that situations that led to positive consequences for our ancestors would also boost happiness today.
由來自新加坡管理大學的心理學專家Norman Li領導的研究者團隊用進化心理學解釋了為什么有些人比其他人快樂。他們推測能夠對我們祖先產生積極影響的因素在今天同樣可以增加我們的幸福感。
People who live in rural areas tend to be happier than those in urban areas, they argue, because our ancestors lived in groups of 150 people and struggled to maintain cooperation and reciprocity in larger groups. Meanwhile, friendships could be key to happiness because our ancestors relied on such relationships to overcome hunting challenges and share childrearing duties.
他們指出，在鄉村地區生活的人往往比生活在都市的人快樂，因為我們的祖先生活在150人的集體里，并力爭在這個大集體里實現合作和互惠。同時，友情成了快樂的關鍵，因為我們的祖先依靠這種關系來克服狩獵的挑戰，分享育兒的責任。
But, the researchers posit, these rules would not hold for extremely intelligent people, who would have less difficulty living in high population areas and not associating with friends. In fact, they wrote, "intelligent individuals even appeared to become more satisfied with life when their frequency of socialization with friends was lower."
但是研究者斷定這并不適用于那些生活在人口密度大的地區、和朋友交往沒有那么困難的地區的極度聰明的人。他們寫道：“事實上當聰明的人和朋友見面的頻率較低時，他們甚至對生活感到更滿足。”
Of course, we're no longer living in the same circumstances as our ancestors, thanks to the wonders of technological advancement. And the researchers argue that more intelligent people simply have less trouble adapting to our new reality.
當然，多虧了奇跡般的科技發展，我們現在的生活環境和我們的祖先大不一樣。研究者們認為，比較聰明的人只是更容易適應我們新的現實環境。
But the researchers' theory is not the only explanation for such findings. Carol Graham, a Brookings Institution researcher who studies the economics of happiness, told the Washington Post that she had a slightly different interpretation. More intelligent people "are less likely to spend so much time socializing because they are focused on some other longer term objective," she said. In other words, work is so important to them that they don't have time to waste with friendships.
但是能解釋該發現的并不只有研究者們的這個理論。布魯金斯學會研究幸福經濟學的研究員Carol Graham告訴華盛頓郵報的記者，她有稍微不同的解釋。她認為，比較聰明的人“不太可能花很多時間社交，因為他們專注于一些較長期的目標。”也就是說，對于他們而言，工作更重要，所以他們沒有可以浪費在友情上的時間。
