As they say, "Ignorance is bliss."

I voted for smart people, and am pretty surprised that it's the minority vote.

Dumb people will constantly put themselves into bad situations with no recourse, whereas someone smart should be able to recognise what they need to do to improve their life.

While I did vote for "Dumb people", I will quote Stephen Fry from a certain QI episode... "If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t there more happy people in the world?"

The correct answer is smart people. Because if you are not happy, are you really smart? Being happy/satisfied is the goal of every human being. So if you can‘t reach that, you aren‘t smart.

Therefore: being happy = smart.

I‘m suprised that almost 90% got the wrong answer. Guess those 90% aren‘t that smart, after all….

I don't think there are dumb and smart people, so I picked smart as I thought it was the nicer of the options.

Dumb people of course... If you are truly smart you learn to not sit there satisfied but be always on alert...
Though i suppose dumb people aren't truly paper, neither are smasrt.
Wise people are the ones who usually find true happiness... But dumb people FEEL happier and more satisfied still, and too dumb to realize that they shouldn't be...

It should be wise people, but because there's only dumb amd smart. Ofc the answer would be dumb cuz they easily forget their sadness with booze and weeds

I do remember seeing studies that intelligence and happiness are actually positively correlated. Which makes sense to me. Being dumb and being ignorant (as in "ignorance is bliss"😉 are two very different things.

An ignorant person can be happy because they don't know about a looming problem on the horizon, but a dumb person isn't inherently less informed than a smart person about their life's problems, they're just worse equipped to solve said problems.

Kind of depends on how you define "dumb" and "smart".

I chose dumb people, because I think you can only be happy, if you can truly accept yourself (which I don't think many do) or if you have no recollection of the past. A being with no brain might to be happy (can you be happy if you can't think?), but they also don't suffer mentally, that being would just live and do its thing until it perishes, and I see that somewhat as a win and somewhat as happiness. It's not quite happiness, it's more like lack of suffering. Not thinking about the past, the present or the future, not thinking about survival or any kind of worry... It's not that you are confident enough to be able to not worry about your survival, your past, etc. you just don't think about it. It's a twisted way to "achieve happiness".

both groups have opportunities for happiness

if you're dumb you'll never identify the factors that contribute to your unhappiness and make changes to achieve it
if you're a brain but you can't turn it off because of the worlds inequities you'll never be happy agonizing over all the problems your galaxy brain should be solving

I think sitting in a social circle of like-minded people can artificially make you dumb(and happy)

Voted smart people since they can see better a myriad of opportunities that can lead them to happiness. This group tends to be more satisfied with their choices in life as well.

Definitely dumb people, depending on how you define dumb. There's a burden in knowing too much, knowing you could have done this or that, knowing you should be doing this, and generally knowing all the things you don't know, should know, or will never be able to know. Sometimes ignorance can really be bliss -- simple, straightforward life has it's rewards. But again, depends on how you define "dumb" or "smart."

Well, the Oxford Dictionary defines smart as „ able to learn and think quickly“ and „showing good judgment“.
So if we assume that a smart and a dumb person both have the goal of „being happy/contend/satisfied“, then, by definition, the smart person MUST be happier (or happy for a longer time) than the dumb person. If it‘s the other way around, the „dumb“ person is actually the smart one. Since the definitions imply that a smart person will be better able to be happy.

If we‘re talking about general intelligence though… well, emotional and social intelligence are certainly more important than cognitive intelligence (=IQ).

I’m sure a study has tried to answer this for us, but if I had to guess, I doubt it makes much of a difference compared to various personality traits and things like financial security. I do think that people who don’t seek out information (or misinformation) are likely happier, but a dumb person who believes that Bill Gates is trying to inject them with microchips is probably no happier than a smart person following the news about climate change.

Definitely dumb people. I have no doubts about that.

I'd say dumb people.
But knowing you're dumb must be terrifying, so concretely dumb people and people who overestimate their intelligence (and never get themselves into a dangerous situation because of it).

I general people who overestimate themselves in certain aspects are usually happy about it.

Dumb people would be caught up in bad situations though, since they wouldn't realize what happened around them. They might also be easier to be manipulated for other's gain.

But, if we're talking about who's happier, I wouldn't say smart people are happier. They would know what happened around them, and they might know if someone's talking bad about them behind their back. They also know how to act responding certain situations. However, even if they could act ignorant, they still could feel hurt about that.

I know this polling is only for fun, but I don't think I could choose either of them 😂

Why do you even want to talk about studies in this case? Haven't you guys heard about reproducibility crisis? It's especially true in soft science disciplines that usually deal with nonsense like the connection of happiness and intelligence.

Some people are dumb and happy, others are dumb and sad, or smart and happy, or smart and sad. It's just the matter what you believe is the correct proportion of those categories. Not to mention, no one is happy all the time. There are sad times.

An argument can be made for both groups, but I picked dumb. Smart people, might be able to achieve greater results from tasks and do more with their potential, so why did I pick dumb?

Not everybody lives in a free society or so called "land of opportunities", add the population of Europe and NA together and it is a tiny fraction of the world.
One of my previous tutors lived in China with her husband (they are Europeans) during the cultural revolution, she was shocked to see doctors working in fields while people were left untreated. Educated people (as well as land owners, people that studied overseas etc) were targeted specifically for these kind of admonishments.
There have been pogrom in Russia before where they killed/expelled the Jews, because dumb people are happy to scapegoat others like that. During the USSR students and professors were regarded as "social parasites", hence why they had a lot of screwed up policies implemented.

Another thing to consider is potential vs challenge, or self-actualization. If you don't feel mentally stimulated this can lead to you becoming unhappier, but if the opportunities in the area are all unchallenging then the person has little choice.
I am pretty sure there are farmers in Africa that are probably smarter than any of us here, but they don't have the opportunity to tap into that. *Maybe* some people get a loan if they can get the collateral, iunno, but what if there is some force majeure that ruined their business such as flooding or earthquakes. Having the ability to learn quicker or make decent decisions does not mean you can account for everything. So being smarter cans et your bar for being happier higher than a normal person might have, and maybe opportunities don't allow that person to reach the bar.

There's also a social aspect, the smarter you are, the more of a minority you are. Which can lead to you being socially ostracized in some places, or sometimes not being able to form meaningful friendships.
I watched a movie a while ago, "5 Easy Pieces", it is by no means a universal fit since people have personality traits beyond just their intellectual prowess, still, part of the story it presented was a man who found very little comfort in his life, and even one of his friends confronted him on why he works at the job, and drinks with him when he knows he could do other stuff.

I heard some stories about very unintelligent people from a friend. So little intelligence that it was considered a disability (I'm only talking about IQ, not e.g. a gen defect). Intelligent people may overthink too much, but thanks to their intelligence they also have the ability to overcome this. Unintelligent people easily become social outsiders and are not able to do anything about it. Often because more intelligent people (not necessarily above average) are not able to lower their niveau. Unintelligent people may become too scared to talk, are being made fun of or may not be able to work because they do not understand their task even after it being explained to them ten times. They might not even be able to live on their own because it's too much to handle without help (money (wether working or not), grocery shopping, cooking, talking to neighbors, using a computer etc. Basically easy things for "normal" people).
That doesn't mean life is easy when you're intelligent. But that life with IQ 150 should be easier than one with IQ 50.

I’m very dumb and very happy.