Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy... especially if I’m less intelligent: How sunlight and intelligence affect happiness in modern society

Author

Satoshi KANAZAWA
Norman P. LI, Singapore Management UniversityFollow
Jose C. YONG

Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

5-2022

Abstract

The savanna theory of happiness proposes that, due to evolutionary constraints on the human brain, situations and circumstances that would have increased our ancestors’ happiness may still increase our happiness today, and those that would have decreased their happiness then may still decrease ours today. It further proposes that, because general intelligence evolved to solve evolutionarily novel problems, this tendency may be stronger among less intelligent individuals. Because humans are a diurnal species that cannot see in the dark, darkness always represented danger to our ancestors and may still decrease our happiness today. Consistent with this prediction, the analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) data shows that exposure to sunlight was associated with happiness but the association was significantly weaker among more intelligent individuals.

Keywords

Sunshine, happiness, mismatch, evolutionary psychology

Discipline

Applied Behavior Analysis | Cognitive Psychology | Social Psychology

Research Areas

Psychology

Publication

Cognition and Emotion

Volume

36

Issue

4

First Page

727

Last Page

730

ISSN

0269-9931

Identifier

10.1080/02699931.2022.2029358

Publisher

Taylor & Francis (Routledge): STM, Behavioural Science and Public Health Titles

Citation

KANAZAWA, Satoshi, LI, Norman P., & YONG, Jose C..(2022). Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy... especially if I’m less intelligent: How sunlight and intelligence affect happiness in modern society. Cognition and Emotion, 36(4), 727-730.

Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3581

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2022.2029358