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Why is Intelligence not Making You Happier?

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Abstract

This study examines the association between cognitive ability and happiness and presents three main findings using a nationally representative sample from China. First, there is only a tiny and insignificant correlation between cognitive ability and happiness. Second, cognitive ability is not associated with greater expectations of worldly success or disregarding real life. Third, people with higher cognitive ability have advantages regarding objective physical and mental health, income level, and social status. Still, they tend to underestimate their relative socioeconomic position and have less confidence about their future, which inhibits their subjective well-being. This study contributes to understanding the new human capital theory and explores the underlying causes of perceptual bias in socioeconomic status.

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Notes

  1. 1 is very dissatisfied, 5 is very satisfied. A. Life satisfaction: Overall, how satisfied are you with your life? B. Marital satisfaction: Overall, how satisfied are you with your current "married/cohabiting" life? C. Job satisfaction: Overall, how satisfied are you with your job?

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Building 6, 18 Xueyuan Street, Hangzhou, 310018, China

    Bianjing Ma & Lei Chen

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  1. Bianjing Ma
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  2. Lei Chen
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Correspondence to Bianjing Ma.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72073117; 71703144) and the Humanities and Social Science Foundation of the Ministry of Education in China (23YJC790097).

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We thank John Knight, Weiliang Su, Chaoliang Liu for their advices, but all mistakes belong to us.

Appendix

Appendix

To construct a comprehensive "Big Five Personality" index based on the CFPS Big Five personality information and the Zheng et al. (2022) method, the following steps are taken: (A) Recode the reverse questions. (B) Sum the scores of the three questions in each dimension (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness) separately. (C) Normalize the total score for each dimension using a normal distribution with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. (D) Sum the normalized scores of each dimension. (E) Normalize the final sum using a normal distribution with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. By following these steps, we will have constructed a comprehensive index of "Big Five Personality" that takes into account all dimensions and is normalized for easy interpretation and comparison (Table 

Table 13 CFPS big five personality measure
Full size table

13).

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Ma, B., Chen, L. Why is Intelligence not Making You Happier?. J Happiness Stud 25, 14 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-024-00722-1

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