The Psychology of Stupidity take a leaf out of the famous book by Daniel Kahneman called Thinking; fast and Slow.
There is actually an interview of sorts in the book with Daniel!
This is important since if you think that only idiots are stupid well, you are stupid, I mean wrong!
The famous situation when you are driving on a highway and according to you, anyone driving slower that you is an idiot while anyone driving faster than you is a maniac!
We check our watch for time (the minority who still have a watch for time and not the phone!) and just five minutes later check it again! According to the author, that is actually a stupid behavior since it does not make any sense!
But you must remember that many so called ‘intelligent’ people do act ‘stupid’ once in a while and the author states how it could be due to the ‘two systems’ in the brain!
Kahneman, is of course a Nobel Prize-winning psychologist, is renowned for his research (much of it with his late collaborator Amos Tversky) into the psychology of judgment and decision-makin and his key contributions explain “stupidity” not as a lack of intelligence, but as a result of inherent flaws in human thinking!
Kahneman’s work introduced the idea that people have two systems of thought:
System 1 (Fast, Intuitive): This system is quick, automatic, and relies on mental shortcuts (heuristics). It is prone to systematic errors, or cognitive biases.
System 2 (Slow, Deliberative): This system is more effortful, logical, and analytical. While more accurate, people often defer to System 1 to save mental energy.
In short it is the system 1 which is fast but ‘stupid’ while system 2 is ‘not so stupid!’
These leads to some biases and errors!
One of this is the cognitive Biases: These are systematic errors in thinking that affect judgment and decision-making.
One of the reasons for going stupid is getting Overconfident! People often overestimate their own abilities and knowledge, leading to poor decisions.
In his later work, Kahneman explored “noise,” or the unwanted variability in human judgments that should be identical, highlighting how even experts can be inconsistent in their decision-making!
Stupidity from ‘normally intelligent’ people thus is dependent on social pressures, emotional factors, and cognitive biases which overrides logic, causing otherwise intelligent people to act foolishly.
The author states that stupidity isn’t a fixed trait but a behavioral tendency we all exhibit at times, which can be compounded by factors like groupthink and media manipulation!
Yes! If you thought that thinking in a group or with a group increases your intelligence or productivity, well then you are let us just say not that intelligent! But that is a subject for some other day!
For now; if you think you are not that stupid then try to use the ‘system 2’ as much as possible!
System 2 also is the one which brings out your talent to the front! Like the super talented Pulapaka Suseela!
Shubh ratri…
ramadocblog 