More intelligent individuals were actually less satisfied with life if they

socialized with their friends more frequently. [Emphasis mine]

Collaboration
Kills Creativity,
According to
Science
It's impossible to think "out of the
box" when you're stuck inside a box with a bunch of other people.
The notion that collaboration makes people more creative has become
conventional wisdom in the business world. Here's a typical example:
Collaboration has recently emerged as the defining characteristic of
creativity and growth in nearly all sectors and industries. The singular
genius who works alone is a myth of yesterday.
Despite this kind of corporate-speak truthiness, there is
substantial scientific evidence that collaboration, rather than sparking
creativity, results in group-think and mediocrity. What does result in
creativity? Simple: solitude.
According to a study recently published in the Elsevier journal
ScienceDirect.com, the character traits of "shyness, avoidance, [and]
unsociability," while generally seen as undesirable, are positively
associated with creativity.
Furthermore, intelligent people are happier when they have less
social interaction, even with their friends, according to a national survey of
15,000 respondents aged 18 to 28 and quoted in the Washington Post:
The more social interactions with close friends a person has, the greater
their self-reported happiness. But there was one big exception. For more
intelligent people, these correlations were diminished or even reversed.
In other words, far from being a "myth of yesterday," the "singular genius
who works alone" is much more likely to be creative than the person who
seeks interaction and "collaboration." Forcing creative people to
"collaborate" simply blunts their creativity.
According to an article in the Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior,
there are
two ways in which solitude can facilitate creativity--first, by stimulating
imaginative involvement in multiple realities and, second, by 'trying on'
alternative identities, leading, perhaps, to self-transformation. ... By
separating us from our usual social and physical environments, solitude
can remove those people and objects that define and confirm our identities.
The people we see and the places we frequent reinforce our identities as
students, parents, police officers, or whomever. ... By extracting us from
our customary social and physical contexts (or at least altering our
experience of them), solitude facilitates self-examination,
reconceptualization of the self, and coming to terms with change.
Put another way, being around other people keeps creative people
from thinking new thoughts. Indeed, there are few experiences more mind-
numbing for a creative person than being forced to interact with dullards
on a daily basis.
Even if your office is full of geniuses, they'll be less creative en masse
than if they can work and think alone. In short, it's difficult and maybe
even impossible to "think out of the box" when you're literally inside a box
(i.e., an open-plan office) that's full of other people.
By Geoffrey James