“Does Intelligence Boost Happiness? Smartness of All Pays More Than Being Smarter Than Others”, Ruut Veenhoven, Yowon Choi2012-12-05 ()⁠:

We invest much in maximizing intelligence and we get ever smarter: But does this make us any happier? The relation between intelligence and happiness is explored on two levels, at the micro-level of individuals and at the macro-level of nations.

At the micro-level, we looked at the results of 23 studies and found:

no correlation between IQ and happiness.

At the macro-level, we assessed the correlation between average IQ and average happiness in 143 nations and found:

a strong positive relationship.

Together these findings mean that smartness of all pays more than being smarter than others.

[Keywords: happiness, life-satisfaction, intelligence, cross-national, research synthesis, IQ]