Li Norman P, Kanazawa Satoshi
School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University, Singapore.
Managerial Economics and Strategy Group, Department of Management, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.
Br J Psychol. 2016 Nov;107(4):675-697. doi: 10.1111/bjop.12181. Epub 2016 Feb 4.
We propose the savanna theory of happiness, which suggests that it is not only the current consequences of a given situation but also its ancestral consequences that affect individuals' life satisfaction and explains why such influences of ancestral consequences might interact with intelligence. We choose two varied factors that characterize basic differences between ancestral and modern life - population density and frequency of socialization with friends - as empirical test cases. As predicted by the theory, population density is negatively, and frequency of socialization with friends is positively, associated with life satisfaction. More importantly, the main associations of life satisfaction with population density and socialization with friends significantly interact with intelligence, and, in the latter case, the main association is reversed among the extremely intelligent. More intelligent individuals experience lower life satisfaction with more frequent socialization with friends. This study highlights the utility of incorporating evolutionary perspectives in the study of subjective well-being.
我们提出了幸福的热带草原理论，该理论认为，不仅给定情境的当前后果，而且其祖先的后果都会影响个体的生活满意度，并解释了祖先后果的这种影响为何可能与智力相互作用。我们选择了两个不同的因素——人口密度和与朋友社交的频率，它们表征了祖先生活和现代生活之间的基本差异——作为实证测试案例。正如该理论所预测的，人口密度与生活满意度呈负相关，与朋友社交的频率与生活满意度呈正相关。更重要的是，生活满意度与人口密度以及与朋友社交之间的主要关联与智力显著相互作用，而且，在后一种情况下，对于极聪明的人来说，主要关联是相反的。更聪明的个体在与朋友更频繁社交时体验到较低的生活满意度。这项研究突出了在主观幸福感研究中纳入进化观点的效用。
