If you’re the kind of person who would rather spend your weeknights on the couch than going for a run, you now have a pretty good excuse.

Recent research from the Journal of Health Psychology suggests that intelligent people spend more time being lazy than people who are more active.

The findings revealed that people with a high IQ don’t get bored as easily as their lower IQ counterparts, leading them to spend more time thinking rather than being active.

While the study was published recently, researchers used a 30-year-old test to arrive at their conclusion.

Called a ‘need for cognition’ questionnaire, it asked the student participants to rate how strongly they agreed with statements like “I really enjoy a task that involves coming up with new solutions to problems” and “I only think as hard as I have to.”

They were then divided into groups of “thinkers” and “non-thinkers” and given accelerometers to wear for a week to measure their level of physical activity.

The results showed that the “thinking” group were “far less active” during the week than the “non-thinking” group. However, on weekends, there was surprisingly no significant difference in the activity rates for both groups.

Of course, this shouldn’t mean that you should ditch your gym membership in the name of higher thinking just yet. Study lead Todd McElroy made clear that being lazy could lead to a sedentary lifestyle, which could cause negative health effects.

“Ultimately, an important factor that may help more thoughtful individuals combat their lower average activity levels is awareness,” McElroy said, according to The British Psychological Society. “Awareness of their tendency to be less active, coupled with an awareness of the cost associated with inactivity, more thoughtful people may then choose to become more active throughout the day.”

If you need some inspiration for how you can sneak more exercise into your busy workweek, check out this list of new fitness trends for young professionals.

[ninja_form id=106]

[ad_bb1]