The Universe can be a daunting place, and truth is not always comforting. Without a good support structure of faith, family and friends, it can indeed be frightening.
Seee??? This is why the headline is misleading.
It's not intellectual powerhouses that are offing themselves, but dullards.
LACK of Intellect Linked To Risk Of Suicide In Young Men
I think the "study" selected out the property of LOGIC within the intelligence quotient as the predictive factor (or the significant variable.)
It said that people whose logical capabilities were lower were less likely to be able to manage crisis and, impliedly, navigate the vagaries of everyday life.
This makes some sense. Very creative people and highly intelligent people often are not very facile in their thinking. They can calculate a million integers but not remember where they put their car keys, they can create an incredible piece of art but be totally incapable of negotiating romantic relationships.
Not to sound like a liberal but intellect has some complex components. It isn't IQ that appears to be the predictor but the capacity to reason oneself out of emotionally overwhelming problems/situations.
How many great minds have been able to solve the problems of cancer, break the gnome code, cure diseases in their respective fields but have gone on to commit suicide because they, somehow, cannot find meaning in the simplest things in life? I'm not sure complex organisms survive well in evolution, adaptable ones do.
After all, it isn't the the dolphin that will inherit the earth, it will be the cockroach.