History Main / IntelligenceEqualsIsolation

* ''Manga/{{Narutaru}}'''s Tomonori Komori and Naozumi Sudo.
** Also, Hiroko Kaizuka. Then she became the victim of ''very'' cruel bullies...

* Sergio in the ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'' SpinOffBabies strip ''Li'l Mell'' is a six year old ChildProdigy, who reads Shakespeare, Virgil and Dantye, but worries that the other kids must be developmentally ahead of him, because they're "forming peer bonds which will advance their psychosocial development from now until puberty", and he doesn't know how to do that. Until he meets [[OddFriendship Mell]].

* In the "Mars University" episode of WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}, Gunther, the [[UpliftedAnimal intelligent monkey]], felt pressure due to the high intellect his experimental hat gave him. In the end though, the hat was damaged to make him moderately intelligent.

* WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic examples:

* One of the main themes in [[WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty Rick and Morty]]. Rick is so intelligent that he has invented a way to cross between universes, giving him the knowledge that there are infinitely many versions of him, and none of them truly matter. Knowing this has turned him into an emotionally isolated alcoholic that treats everyone like they're disposable, because to him they are.

* [[http://www.yourtango.com/2016287241/smarter-people-have-fewer-friends-says-science This]] article claims there is a scientific explanation for this phenomenon, namely that "highly intelligent individuals are better able to adapt to modern life. [...] This means they don't have as much of a need for social interaction."

* Keiichi from ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' is shown to experience this in flashbacks. He's promoted to the advanced class when his grades suddenly go up, but then the bullying begins...

* Max Cohen, the mathematical genius in ''Film/{{Pi}}''. Max's quest for the universal number that holds the key to the mathematical basis of nature has left him utterly disconnected from the rest of humanity, to the extent that he even fears leaving his apartment if he could run into someone.

* Ellie in ''Film/TheHalfOfIt'' is introverted, has perfect grades, plays the guitar and keyboard, and is the only Asian American girl in her small town high school. She only really interacts with her classmates to make money via her essay writing cheating scheme.

** Bragging about all the prestigious universities you've gotten into to people who may not be as naturally gifted as you could also be seen as [[InsufferableGenius kind of a dick move]].

-->Q: What's the difference between an introverted engineer and an extroverted engineer?
-->A: An introverted engineer looks at his shoes when he talks to you. An extroverted engineer looks at ''your'' shoes when he talks to you.

* All the guys in ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' were isolated and picked on at school. Well, except Raj, whose family wealth shielded him but left him so traumatized he is unable to even speak aloud in a woman's presence.

Note that this is not just about popularity with others, although that's certainly part of it. There are examples of [[TheAce smart people who are popular with others]] but [[BrokenAce still feel that their intelligence isolates them]]. It's pretty difficult to find common ground when explaining your thoughts bores others, after all. Of course, if the intelligent one is an InsufferableGenius then lack of intersocial skills or [[{{Narcissist}} tendencies to assume superiority]] probably play a much bigger part in their isolation than merely being smart or mental issues, feigned or otherwise.

** Furthermore, he is painfully aware of these attributes and while he often doesn't have the best relationship with his fellow heroes, he does care about him and there are some that he is quite close with, such as Superman.

* Reed Richards of the ComicBook/FantasticFour has sometimes been shown as so smart that he feels even his loved ones can't really understand him. Fortunately, he overcame it enough to romance his wife and love his son. [[ComicBook/CivilWar This still happens, though]].

** Jimmy is a {{Zigzagged mixed bag}}. Sometimes intelligence isolates him, often he sets the (horrible) events of the plot in motion causing him to be isolated, sometimes the characters realize they need his intellect &/or like him more than they let on, and sometimes he's just an InsufferableGenius.

** Jimmy is a mixed bag. Sometimes intelligence isolates him, often he sets the (horrible) events of the plot in motion causing him to be isolated, sometimes the characters realize they need his intellect &/or like him more than they let on, and sometimes he's just an insufferable genius.

* All the guys in ''Series/TheBigBangTheory''were isolated and picked on at school. Well, except Raj, whose family wealth shielded him but left him so traumatized he is unable to even speak to women.

* Subverted in ''Series/{{Carrusel}}''. Maria Joaquina and Jorge may be brilliant students who have trouble making friends... but the reason for their difficulty has nothing to do with intelligence- it is due to Maria Joaquina and Jorge being [[SpoiledBrat snobbish and condescending]] towards other students not as wealthy as they are. Maria Joaquina gets somewhat better after a while, as she's subjected to BreakTheHaughty and becomes the LovableAlphaBitch afterwards; Jorge keeps being haughty and snotty until almost the end instead.
** Averted by Daniel, who is the top student in the class and comes from an upper middle class family- though nowhere near as wealthy as Maria Joaquina or Jorge- yet has many friends and is the leader of La Patrulla Salvadora.

* Both ''Series/{{Frasier}}''' and Niles Crane, who were bullied severely and persistently throughout their childhoods and, as their father notes, never made many friends, which is partly why they are so much more close-knit than most successful adult siblings.
** It often comes across that while Frasier is an example of the trope compared to "normal people", Niles is an example compared to ''Frasier''.

* On ''Series/{{Leverage}}'', Nate shows how difficult this really is. It is directly pointed out during the "Boys Night Out Job" that he really doesn't have any real friends apart from [[TrueCompanions the team]] and [[AmicablyDivorced his ex wife]].
** Nate and Sterling were good friends when they worked for the insurance company. However, this only serves to reinforce this trope, as Sterling is just as smart and calculating as Nate.

** C.J. tells Toby, "No one likes people who know everything," to which Toby responds "So I've discovered in my life."

** Another study showed that more intelligent people often had a greater predilection towards clinical depression. While misery loves company, company certainly doesn't like misery.
** Even in day to day work life a difference in intelligence can make what could be a great friendship or great friendships not easy to have.
** In an extreme example serial killers tend to fall on the extreme ends of the IQ spectrum. Either quite low (high 70s to low 90s) or quite high (130+ seems to be the cutoff). This could indeed be another instance of 'unable to relate'.

** Same goes for Henry Cavendish.

** Just as it is easy to hide "crazy" (as in the dangerous type of crazy) online, one can also hide social awkwardness as well. Those who appear glib and witty in print can have trouble with in-person, realtime conversation where how you say something (body language) is as important as what you say. Also, if said person were to speak in the same way they write, it would result in stilted dialogue.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' has Hermione Granger in the first book until she, Ron and Harry become friends. Her intelligence [[InsufferableGenius and condescending attitude]] led to most people disliking her. Their teasing led to her crying in the bathroom. Subverted in every book after that, where she's still kind of a know-it-all but is generally well-liked by her fellow Gryffindors.
** WordOfGod states that Albus Dumbledore was like this for most of his life, to such a degree, in fact, [[spoiler:that it drove him straight into the company of Gellert Grindelwald, the greatest Dark Wizard in history at the time.]]

* ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' is a classic example of this. His genius often causes him considerable frustration when dealing with other people (including the official police force), and as a result he prefers to follow his own route to a solution. He chooses only those cases which truly interest him intellectually, and involves only those people who are useful for his current case. Aside from his brother Mycroft Holmes and his loyal friend Doctor John Watson, he spends most of his time alone, broadening his eclectic range of knowledge. When he feels he has nothing to work on his brilliant mind becomes a burden, sometimes driving him to seek a drug-induced stupor as an alternative to the mundane. Mycroft and Dr. Watson appear to be the only two people whose company Holmes actively seeks out, and who are able to tolerate his often acerbic or dark moods, while maintaining a genuine liking for him. Although Holmes does express admiration occasionally for individuals who present above average intelligence (in his opinion) he doesn't seem to have any close friends outside of Watson and Mycroft, and appears to prefer isolation.
** Mycroft is even MORE of this, to the point of being a {{Flanderization}}. He prefers his own company to the extent that he ''started a club whose members are forbidden to speak to each other''.
* In the 1955 science fiction story "Judgment Day" by Creator/LSpragueDeCamp, a scientific genius has discovered an atomic principle that could potentially [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy the planet]]. Most of the story is a flashback to his unhappy life of being unpopular and bullied and lonely. He decides to publish his discovery, expecting it to lead to humanity destroying itself.
** His description, as narrator, of his detachment from people and deeply-buried violent rage is kind of unsettling. A modern reader might be tempted to wonder if he had [[AmbiguousDisorder undiagnosed neurological issues.]]
* Raistlin in ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'', whose exceptional intelligence sets him apart from other characters (although his loneliness is also because, well, AmbitionIsEvil and BeingEvilSucks).
** He also sets himself apart deliberately, because he resents that his [[IncurableCoughOfDeath extreme]] [[SquishyWizard physical frailty]] makes him heavily reliant on others.

** Claudia's sister Janine is a TeenGenius with an IQ of 196 who frequently confuses the others with her SesquipedalianLoquaciousness. She has not much of a social life and spends most of her time on her computer. She's secretly jealous of her less intelligent sister Claudia because she has a lot of friends.

** Implied for one girl in a camping "episode": She doesn't join the girls' activities and prefers to read by herself; likewise the other girls don't talk to her. She comes into her own when the girls get lost on a hike, saving everyone because the book she was reading was about the outdoors and she was the only one who knew how to read the trail markers. Sadly, the last we hear of her is her mother telling the counsellor that she definitely won't be back next summer.
* Most of the people exiled from the society of ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'' have high intelligence, due to their frustration with the shallow nature of their society.

* In Christopher Stasheff's ''The Witch Doctor,'' from his "Wizard in Rhyme" series, the main character complained to an angel that he never had any friends as a kid because nobody else in the neighborhood was interested in reading. The angel's reply was that he should have ''pretended'' to be interested in the same things as the other kids and then he might've had friends. (Although the series ''did'' take place in a medieval universe with decidedly different values...)

* As mentioned above, Lisbeth Salander in "Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy" She is brilliant- has photographic memory, extremely skilled at computer hacking, reads math books and solves mathematical equations for fun, and yet has close to no friends. Her Brilliance is recognized by a few of the characters who get to know her (Blomkvist, Mirium Wu, Armansky) but for the most part she is so asocial and unresponsive that she was declared incompetent by psychologists.

* In ''{{Film/Election}}'', highly intelligent and ambitious Tracy Flick suspects that she suffers from this reality. [[spoiler: During the ending she confirms this while in College, which shows her studying, unlike the other students whom are getting high and partying. She concludes that her being isolated from others is the price for wanting to achieve greatness.]]

When this intelligence is combined with a talent for manipulation, and possibly some good looks, you get an explosive mixture: add some AppliedPhlebotinum or an ArtifactOfDoom and you might get a MagnificentBastard, with the potential to be a very interesting antagonist. If, in addition to that, they are benevolent and feel compelled by their intelligence to improve the world, you might get a very effective WellIntentionedExtremist who thinks UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans, and who might become a KnightTemplar. If, instead, they are a NietzscheWannabe, beware: high intelligence leads to questioning, and, in Morals, when you find out there aren't any readily made answers, you might settle for "there aren't any answers at all, so just do what you want"... With enough MotiveDecay, can become an OmnicidalManiac and a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/RealGenius''
-->'''Chris Knight''': ''When I was three years old, I balanced my father's checkbook. They sent me to school and fired their accountant. My father was so intimidated, he stopped speaking to me. My teachers disliked me because I was smarter than they were. My classmates hated me because I broke the bell curve. Sound familiar? My mother dressed me in white shirts, hush puppies and a briefcase, guaranteeing that no girl would ever talk to me.''

* Lisbeth Salander in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (Movie version of "Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy")

* In ''{{Film/Election}}'', highly intelligent and ambitious Tracy Flick suspects that she suffers from this reality. [[spoiler: During the ending she confirms this while in College, which shows her studying, unlike the other students whom are getting high and partying. She concludes that her being isolated from others is the price for wanting to achieve greatness.]]
* ''Film/BadGenius'' implies this for Bank and Lynn. They're the two smartest in their grade, but Grace is the only friend of Lynn's we see, while Pat alludes that Bank's not much better in that department.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Wesley. It eventually came back to bite him in Season Three.
* The eponymous Series/{{Sherlock}}, who is an InsufferableGenius, subscribes very firmly to GoodIsNotNice, and has several characteristics of a ByronicHero. [[TheWatson John]] even suggests that Sherlock might have Asperger's Syndrome. It's outright stated that he has never had any friends prior to John:
--> '''John:''' ''[About 'Richard Brooke']'' Old school friend?
--> '''[[AloofBigBrother Mycroft]]:''' ''[Sardonic smile]'' Of ''Sherlock's''?
** As per canon, [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Mycroft]] takes this UpToEleven; when the Holmses were young boys, the two thought that Sherlock was a genuine idiot, not just less clever than Mycroft, but truly slow. Sherlock lives in a world SurroundedByIdiots, therefore Mycroft lives in a world surrounded by ''[[UpToEleven goldfish]]''.
* River Tam of ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' was very much this during her younger years. She corrected the teachers often, and no one understood her, leading to her not being invited back to class. And then [[MindRape the Academy happened]]. Simon doesn't seem to have been much better at it, though [[CharacterDevelopment his social skills improve noticeably over the course of the series.]]
* The ''Series/FamilyTies'' episode "A, My Name Is Alex" heavily implies that Alex experienced this kind of treatment in his childhood years. In addition to putting mountains of pressure on him over it, his teacher would also frequently make it clear how smart he was in front of his class to the point that the other kids refused to associate with him; but lucky for him he managed to make a friend in Greg who's death is being currently grieved over at the moment.

* ''Series/{{House}}''. And not just the title character either. UpToEleven with the PatientOfTheWeek in ''Ignorance is Bliss''.
-->'''Sidas''': It's lonely, isn't it?
-->'''House''': It's not that bad.
-->'''Sidas''': Then you're not that smart.
* [[ChildProdigy T.J. Henderson]] from the show ''Series/SmartGuy'' was too young to fit in with his fellow high-schoolers and could only relate to kids his own age around basketball and other non-intellectual activities (which usually resulted in disaster of some sort). Other smart kids were out of the question too because they were nowhere near as sociable or well-adjusted as T.J., tending to be dipped fully in IntelligenceEqualsIsolation by virtue of being too [[HollywoodNerd stereotypically]] [[InsufferableGenius arrogant]] to care about reciprocal friendships.
* Toby and President Bartlet on ''Series/TheWestWing''.
** C.J. tells Toby, "No one likes people who know everything," to which Toby responds "So I've discovered in my life."
** President Bartlet asks Toby "You think the strike against me is nobody likes the smartest kid in the class?" in "Hartsfield's Landing." Subverted when Bartlet takes this and uses it to win the election despite the MS scandal.

* Subverted in ''Series/{{Carrusel}}''. Maria Joaquina and Jorge may be brilliant students who have trouble making friends... but the reason for their difficulty has nothing to do with intelligence- it is due to Maria Joaquina and Jorge being [[SpoiledBrat snobbish and condescending]] towards other students not as wealthy as they are. Maria Joaquina gets somewhat better after a while, as she's subjected to BreakTheHaughty and becomes the LovableAlphaBitch afterwards; Jorge keeps being haughty and snotty until almost the end instead.
** Averted by Daniel, who is the top student in the class and comes from an upper middle class family- though nowhere near as wealthy as Maria Joaquina or Jorge- yet has many friends and is the leader of La Patrulla Salvadora.
* Both Series/{{Frasier}} and Niles Crane, who were bullied severely and persistently throughout their childhoods and, as their father notes, never made many friends, which is partly why they are so much more close-knit than most successful adult siblings.
** It often comes across that while Frasier is an example of the trope compared to "normal people," Niles is an example compared to ''Frasier''.
* Dr. Brennan on ''Series/{{Bones}}'', most definitely
* Gil Grissom on ''Series/{{CSI}}'', often thought of as a bit of a recluse while he was team leader. He did become close to the others on the team; a family dynamic showed up as time went on, though it took six seasons for Sara to finally break down the walls he'd put up and form a romance with him.
* Brick Heck on ''Series/TheMiddle'', who's always looking for opportunities to read. Having UsefulNotes/AspergersSyndrome contributes to it.
* On ''Series/{{Leverage}}'', Nate shows how difficult this really is. It is directly pointed out during the "Boys Night Out Job" that he really doesn't have any real friends apart from [[TrueCompanions the team]] and [[AmicablyDivorced his ex wife]].
** Nate and Sterling were good friends when they worked for the insurance company. However, this only serves to reinforce this trope, as Sterling is just as smart and calculating as Nate.
* Thanks to them all having NoSocialSkills, the four geniuses of ''Series/{{Scorpion}}''. The complete list of outsiders they are comfortable interacting with outside their little group are: Their boss, the waitress they hired to be their interface with normal people, her ChildProdigy son who is having the same problem that they do, and Walter's sister (until her death).

[[folder:Theater]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Stanley in Webcomic/EvilPlan believes in this trope so much that he ensures it. During college he intentionally blocks himself away from anyone including his own roommate, believing that personality has viral tendencies and that stupid was infectious if he listened to too many people talking about trite pop-culture related garbage. After enduring this for a semester his roommate promptly gives him a verbal beat down with a side dose of perspective.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': Jimmy. He actually purposely made himself stupid in the "Normal Boy" to end his misery, but the machines accidently set his intelligence so low he became a complete moron.