Why ignorant people are happy

Most people would agree that extreme personal happiness is a great thing to have. But how do you view other people who appear to have achieved near perpetual bliss? Be honest. You might feel like a schmuck admitting it, but maybe you view those who seem to walk in eternal sunshine as Or maybe you're sometimes a little suspicious about what really lies behind that perma-smile?

My prediction would be that this would further exaggerate the difference between happiness amongst the ignorant and intelligent. This whole material assumes that intelligence is the opposite of ignorance. But ignorance is more related with knowledge the lack of it than with intelligence the ability to reason. Therefore I would appreciate a study that tries to establish a link between happiness and the level of knowledge. However the knowledge level would be harder to define.

If I know that the capital of Malaysia is Kuala Lumpur for example, would that make me more knowledgeable less ignorant than someone that hasn't a clue that such country exists but knows all about the life of bees?

People that rank higher on vocab and reasoning tests are likely to have come from wealthier families to begin with, as wealthier children are much more likely to have the developmental opportunities that will allow them to do well in school, and have access to wide vocabularies. The way these numbers work out, happiness, even as it is related to intelligence, is inherited on some level.

If you don't factor out the bliss-inducing higher incomes of more intelligent people, you cannot determine the extent to which ignorance causes bliss. I suspect that general ignorance is bliss, at least in the sense that the person is unaware of additional reasons to be unhappy.

A person who is ignorant about, say, global warming or the long-term insolvency of Social Security would become less happy after learning the facts. Justin, It is quite ignorant for you to assume intelligence implies lack of ignorance : We can actually have two parallel studies: happiness V ignorance and happiness V intelligence. Money definitely cant be the only criterion for happiness though it does play a small part.

Ignorant people are less troubled by problems around them because by definition they aren't aware of them. Intelligent people are unsatisfied by mundane conversations. Similarly most entertainment like TV shows or movies are unlikely to satisfy them either. So there is a case to be made for their them being less happy. I would argue ignorant, dumb yet rich folks are the happiest Paris Hilton, anyone?

Ignorance and Intelligence, ironically a deep irony here , aren't the same thing. Ignorance of what? String Theory. Taleb is a prime example of someone in favor of systematic ignorance We become happy regardless of what the situation is. Happiness is our default state and all we need to do is simply remove our ignorance that has been blocking it.

In popular culture — An article by Learning Tools argues that intelligent people tend to be happier than their less intelligent counterparts. As per the Philosophy of Coexistence, man is inquisitive by nature. Unless his inquisitiveness is satisfied, he will not be contented and so, can not be happy.

Ignorance is bliss is an old saying and that can be meant to state that he has no unsolved questions. Having no questions can be termed as ignorance but that does not give the sense of achievement or purposeful existence which is crucial for being happy, for being in bliss. Knowing is bliss Image by ThePixelman from Pixabay.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay. Image by Mabel Amber from Pixabay. Image by lisa runnels from Pixabay. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay. Image from Pixabay. Needs are essential to human functioning. The concept of human needs stems from our human… Read More Happiness has never been defined concisely, but everyone seems to aim for it.

Being happy… Read More If you crammed for a test in school and were stressed about it, you probably do not remember the information even three days later—even if that information would have been helpful at your job or if you had to battle Watson on Jeopardy.

But you probably remember song lyrics from a decade or more ago, and your brain retained that information even if it is useless to you unless you do a lot of karaoke.

You can prime people to become more altruistic by giving them something small yourself. In fact, a meta-analysis of employees at companies reveals that nearly every single business outcome improves when a brain is positive. Happiness is a significant advantage. In fact, happiness is the single greatest competitive advantage in the modern economy.

The darker the movie, the less redemptive the ending, the more artistic people think it is. But this is not true.