Stupidity

Stupidity is the quality or condition of being stupid, or lacking intelligence. This quality can be attributed to both an individual himself (John Smith is stupid) or his actions, words or beliefs (John Smith's policies are stupid). The term can thus also refer to poor use of judgement, or insensitivity to nuances in a person whose is otherwise intelligent. The determination of who is stupid is relatively difficult, despite attempts to measure intelligence (and thus stupidity) such as IQ tests. The adjective is also used by children as a general pejorative, though the usage is fading. Example: "I didn't borrow your stupid cap - go look for it yourself."

Definitions

As there are many definitions of intelligence, there are also many definitions of stupidity:

Those who suffer from a mental disability that is genetic or biological in origin. It could be argued, however, that this is unfair, since stupidity implies that one is at least able to understand that an action is stupid, and in the mentally disabled this may not be possible. In other words it could be argued that stupidity implies culpability, which may not be fairly imputed to mentally disabled people on account of actions that would rightfully be considered stupid if done by people not suffering from any mental disability.

Those lacking knowledge about certain subjects. This can be those who are lacking formal education and knowledge about the world, or those that are highly educated but lacking street smarts or common sense. Lack of knowledge is more commonly termed ignorance.

Conflicting belief systems. When an individual regards the actions of others as "stupid," it is often because those actions are contrary to the actions that the individual thinks are rational. It has been proposed that when faced with the complexity of life, the universe, and everything, humans create belief systems that enable them to function without being overwhelmed by information. In other words humans do not naturally employ logical progression in order to arrive at every single judgement — they rely instead on preconceived notions that have been built up over the course of their lives. People who have led different lives develop different "truths" which are in turn used as starting points from which to navigate more complex reasoning. Although a belief system may be religious, ideological or political it must not necessarily be so -- it can be a combination of all or none of these. All individuals have their own belief system. According to this definition, an individual can only be stupid if they employ faulty logic on their existing beliefs. An individual cannot reliably be diagnosed as "stupid" by an observer who is not in possession of the "facts" on which the individuals reasoning is predicated. Of course the observer may believe that they are in possession of more (or a higher quality of) "facts."

Stupidity manifested by the educated

Recently a great deal of attention has been paid to another class of stupidity: stupid actions by those that are highly educated and worldly. It is an important subject as it is increasingly evident that powerful, and generally very intelligent, people sometimes do stupid things. In recent years a number of notions such as groupthink have been developed to explain this. This is a fairly new topic for researchers and there are still few academic works on the subject, though in the 19th Century Oscar Wilde wrote There is no sin except stupidity. [1]

Otherwise intelligent individuals may also become stupid when their rational thought is derailed by strong opinions or rigid beliefs. In this case the victim falls into confirmation bias and begins selecting data: becoming intentionally blind and deaf to contrary evidence, while at the same time collecting evidence which supports the beliefs. Rather than being based on low intelligence or missing knowledge, this is the stupidity of closed-mindedness and willful ignorance. Note that modern science specifically evolved to combat this form of stupidity. During scientific thought we constantly criticise our own beliefs and assumptions (attempt to disprove hypotheses), while also using humility and extreme self-honesty to reduce our ego-based biases.

The Encyclopedia of Stupidity by Matthijs van Boxsel is based on the author's contention that "stupidity is in fact the foundation of our civilization" and his idea that no one is intelligent enough to realise how stupid they are. This is not as stupid as it sounds if one includes in the definition of stupidity "unwitting self-destruction, the ability to act against one's best wishes". A saying attributed to Albert Einstein is "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." Therefore stupidity is not solely the opposite of intelligence but may also be considered a very human kind of flawed or mistaken intelligence, the darkness that makes the light of true intelligence visible.

Stupidity in comedy

For as long as comedy has existed, stupidity has been a source of immense entertainment. Generally the entertainers are merely pretending to be stupid. The buffoon of ancient plays is the progenitor of a venerable lineage that continued through Falstaff, Bottom, Harpo Marx, Goofy, Eccles, Norman Wisdom, Jerry Lewis and countless others, and is portrayed in contemporary Western culture by characters such as Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin. The fool/buffoon has been a central character in most comedy. Today there are a wide array of television shows that showcase stupidity, from the America's Funniest Home Videos genre to shows like Jackass. Often the greatest stupidity is deliberately generated by very smart minds such as the Oxbridge comedy of Monty Python.

Many nations have a brand of pejorative humour which involves labelling the people of a neighboring nation as stupid. The English do this with Irish jokes, the French with Belgians, Americans with Canadians, Canadians with Americans, Americans with Mexicans, Australians with New Zealanders, and so on. The butt of the jokes are usually the citizens of small countries bordering a culturally powerful nation.

Pretending stupidity as a sales tactic

Pretending to be less intelligent than your prospect is a form of pretending to be stupid without irony that is exploited by salespeople. As in most fields, to be successful requires a great deal of intelligence. However, if one is selling something, the prospective buyer must feel as though he is in control. Therefore, it can help to know how to pretend to be stupid. The most successful people tend to be extremely intelligent despite their pretended idiocy, particularly when their prospect is of above average intelligence, or is himself trained in such sales techniques. The television character Lieutenant Columbo used this technique to solve crimes.

This mode is akin to the satirical tradition of supposedly naive observers, such as Oliver Goldsmith's supposedly Chinese letter-writer in 18th-century London, in The Citizen of the World, and others, including Montesquieu's Persian Letters.

Individual stupidity vs collective stupidity

Social psychology has shown that perfectly sensible people can, collectively, act quite foolishly because of blind obedience, mimetism or herding.

Quotes

“Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.” —Frank Zappa^[2][3][4]
“There is no sin except stupidity.” —Oscar Wilde^[5][6]
“Stupidity is better kept a secret than displayed.” —Heraclitus of Ephesus^[7]
“The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity.” —Voltaire^[8]
“In view of the fact that God limited the intelligence of man, it seems unfair that He did not also limit his stupidity.” —Konrad Adenauer^[9][10]

References

Matthijs van Boxsel, The Encyclopedia of Stupidity. ISBN 1861891598

External links

In praise of irrationality
"Unskilled and unaware of it: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments" For this publication the authors were honoured in 2000 with the Ig Nobel Prize in psychology.
The Power of Stupidity by Giancarlo Livraghi, the first in a series of three interesting and hilarious papers on the nature of human stupidity.
The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity, a draft thesis by Carlo M. Cipolla.