The state of the world and its social problems aren’t worth losing sleep over. As the evolutionary psychologist explains, just worry about your science.

Question: What keeps you up at night? 

Satoshi Kanazawa: I don’t worry about the state of the world. As a scientist I have no… I don’t worry about the state of the world. I only worry about scientific questions. For example, my current work shows that the average level of intelligence in all western populations is going down. That worries some of my colleagues, intelligence research the fact that as populations the average intelligence is going down. That doesn’t worry me. I don’t worry about societal trends. I only worry about scientific questions and solutions, so what keeps me up at night is solving scientific problems. I don’t solve society’s problems. I don’t care about society’s problems. 

Question: What are you working on now? 

Satoshi Kanazawa: Essentially like I said the effect of intelligence on fertility behavior. All my research right now involves what intelligent people value and prefer and part of what intelligent people value and prefer is not having children or having fewer children than less intelligent people. 

Question: Are there other results about sexual behavior that you’re finding among intelligent people? 

Satoshi Kanazawa: This work hasn’t been published yet, but probably more intelligent people are more likely to be homosexual because once again it is unnatural to be homosexual in the sense that all biological beings are designed to be heterosexual, designed for heterosexual reproduction, so in that limited sense it is unnatural to be exclusively homosexual and for that reason probably more intelligent people are more like to be homosexual than less intelligent people. Pick any unnatural things that we’re not designed for more intelligent people are more likely to do it.