Stupidity

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Stupidity is willful ignorance or unintelligence. This quality can be related to a person\'s actions, words or beliefs, or those of a group. The adjective is also used as a general pejorative (e.g. "I didn\'t steal your stupid baseball cap.").

In public policy

In The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam, historian Barbara Tuchman examined how even intelligent, well-informed government officials can pursue policies that are clearly contrary to their country\'s best interests. P.J. O\'Rourke makes similar points, although for humorous effect, in his book A Parliament of Whores.

In comedy

Generally, the stupidity featured in comedy is that of entertainers pretending to be stupid. The fool or buffoon has been a central character in much comedy. Today there is a wide array of television shows that showcase stupidity such as Jackass, as well as with many cartoon shows, such as Homer Simpson from The Simpsons.^{[citation needed]}

Individual vs. collective stupidity

In psychology, this is known as deindividuation in crowds, and can lead to behaviours usually not displayed outside the specific social situation. The behaviours occur because individuals will conform to perceived social norms in order to \'fit in\' or project an impression of self as "normal".^{[citation needed]}

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. He defines stupidity as "unwitting self-destruction, the ability to act against nothing".

See also

• Bounded rationality
• Darwin Awards
• Genius
• Ignorance
• Irrationality
• World Stupidity Awards

References

• Matthijs van Boxsel. De encyclopedie van de domheid. 1999. Translated by A. and E. Pomerans as The Encyclopedia of Stupidity. London: Reaktion Books, 2003. ISBN 1-86189-159-8, 2005 edition: ISBN 1-86189-231-4, Book description at The Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Stupidity

• In praise of irrationality
• "Unskilled and unaware of it: How Difficulties in Recognizing One\'s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments" The authors received the 2000 Ig Nobel Prize in psychology.
• The Power of Stupidity by Giancarlo Livraghi, a series of nine papers on the nature of human stupidity.
• stupidity.com
• Understanding Stupidity by James F Welles, Ph.D.

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