A study from the University of Oxford found that those with higher intelligence marks were less trusting of others, while those who scored lower in intelligence were more trusting. However, before you discerning smarty-pants start celebrating your selectiveness, the study also found that those who are more trusting reported being happier than their intelligently skeptical counterparts. Researchers have a few theories one why there is a connection between trust and smarts, with theories ranging from more intelligent people being better able to judge character, or excelling in some way when it comes to sizing up situations and realizing where people would perhaps betray them or act in their own self interest. Or, for our more trusting folks, perhaps we can chalk it up to the evolutionary idea that working together improves our resources and enriches our lives, and they are more trusting in order to survive as a group, while the skeptics think more towards self-preservation. Being a good judge of others moral character, in the opinion of those who executed the survey, is a part of intelligence that has developed through natural selection. Those who fail to accurately weigh whether they can trust a dishonest person to split their kill, for example, starve (that was bleak). Conversely, though, people who trust others feel happier and healthier, a good reason to perhaps not evaluate others too harshly. If we could cultivate more trust in society, in our charities, organizations and communities, we could all experience wonderful implications.
