The Psychology of Stupidity: Explained by Some of the World's Smartest People

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Everyone does some stupid things, but what makes a person stupid? If anything ties these short essays and interviews together, it's the realization that one doesn't need to have a low I.Q. to be stupid. There's an emotional component that can cause the most intelligent, educated people to delude themselves. And so I proclaim, o idiots and every stripe and morons of all kinds, this is your moment of glory: this book speaks only to you. But you will not recognise yourselves...

Review: The Psychology of Stupidity › Synapses Review: The Psychology of Stupidity › Synapses

In a way, words that free themselves from their referents and proper meanings escape the ordinary confines of language. But a word is always a problematic entity: its meaning is open, and can be the object of negotiation between two interlocutors" The book is a thinly-disguised broadside against people who don’t share the same intellectual bent as the editor (and many of the authors), and particularly against Trump supporters (a recurring theme). Kruger, J., Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1121-1134. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.77.6.1121 Indeed! It was a difficult post to write here, I had to base on the book. But also not try and sound like I think I’m more intelligent than everyone, as I think humility is so important. A: Yes, Donald Trump is a supreme asshole, an überasshole, if you like. I mean by that, that he’s an asshole who inspires respect and admiration for his mastery of the art of assholery, despite heavy competition from his peers. Assholes generally have to fight for the title of “asshole in chief” or “baron” of assholes, but few can match Trump’s prowess at piling assholery upon assholery (Kim Jong-un, in North Korea, being a notable exception). Those who manage it for a time, like Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, often end up becoming more docile."

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This book is a collection of short essays by psychologists and other people expert in the workings of the human mind, on the subject of stupidity. It is translated from the French, which I didn't realize when I opened it, but it was fine- some of the pop culture references were a little unfamiliar, but the translation was competent, and the inevitable references to President Trump transcend the boundaries of language. If you view our experience as a species as a collective exercise, then it’s of the utmost intigue to think, “Why are so many people so stupid?” Some mighty smart people, basically, who’ve been well educated. But have something to do with what they’ve learned, rather than lapsing into pomposity. For the most part, the book seems to be a vanity project for Jean-Francois Marmion, who is the author of around a third of the essays it contains. Perhaps the narcissistic society that keeps growing and that we’re growing in also plays a huge role in the characteristics of our new generations and of what they believe is “good” and “right”…

The Psychology of Stupidity by Jean-François Marmion The Psychology of Stupidity by Jean-François Marmion

we’re all equipped with a bullshit detector called negativity bias.18 This is a tendency that leads us to give more weight, attention, and interest to negative things than to positive ones. Negativity bias has significant consequences on people’s opinions, on their prejudices and stereotypes, on discrimination and superstition. As with housework, we notice the little things only when they haven’t been done. It’s because of the negativity bias that we find it easier to deal with an idiot than with a genius in a complex social setting. In addition, this bias leads us to read more meaning into a negative event than a positive one." In zijn geheel heb ik genoten van dit aparte boek. Het verwoord zoveel wat ik zelf ook constateer in de huidige wereld maatschappij waarin wij leven. Maar het zo treffend onder woorden brengen en uiteenzetten laat ik graag over aan de wetenschappers. Het mooie aan dit boek vind ik dat er geen arrogantie vanuit gaat, niet een “wij hebben onderzoek gedaan dus weten alles beter”, maar juist ook goed kijken naar zichzelf en diens vast gesleten patronen. Hoe slim de mens ook is, domheid ligt altijd op de loer. Zij het in het onwetende of juist in de kwaadaardige vorm maar dat ze er is, is een ding dat zeker is. Domheid helpt in het leerproces dat wij ons hele leven ondergaan en maakt ons mens. Daarom, ‘Domheid, een menselijke gave’. By the same token, it must be accepted that the idiot is in good mental health overall; because the illusion of control is much weaker among depressed people. (c) The thing is, the control freak might not be an idiot but just a, well, control freak.And so I proclaim, o idiots of every stripe and morons of all kinds, this is your moment of glory: this book speaks only to you. But you will not recognize yourselves… Believing British society would collapse into a communist state should the monarchy system be abolished (and using China as an example to support the argument) I had someone else on this thing calling me an idiot for my idiotic take on stupidity. I think that idiotic isn’t moronic enough for… hey, House of Heart, how you doin’!?

The Psychology of Stupidity | Penguin Random House Secondary The Psychology of Stupidity | Penguin Random House Secondary

Is an asshole who’s aware of his assholery still an asshole? (c) And it goes on and on, droning on that. Quoting Misericordia's review on Goodreads "The word usage was illuminating. asshole(s/ry) were used 118 times, idiot(s/ic/) 86 times, fool(s/hardy/ed) 83 times, and moron(s) 21 times". Nothing is more impressive than someone literally counting these words in a book 🤣 Jean-Francois Marmion's book is not a unified effort that defines its terms. Some of the articles, to me, seem irrelevant, such as the chapter on whether our nighttime dreams can be stupid. But some of the chapters really seemed enlightening. Among my favorites were There are some fools who find it impossible to sleep when they are passengers; apparently they can sleep only when they’re the driver! (c) The book is terribly edited. It has no flow or coherence, moving from chapters abusing the “stupid”, to reflections on cognition and human psychology, with no clear linkages between the two.

Fiedler, K., & Krueger, J. I. (2012). More than an artifact: Regression as a theoretical construct. In J. I. Krueger (Ed.). Social judgment and decision-making (pp. 171-189). New York, NY: Psychology Press. And so I proclaim, o idiots of every stripe and morons of all kinds, this is your moment of glory: this book speaks only to you. But you will not recognize yourselves...

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF STUPIDITY | Kirkus Reviews THE PSYCHOLOGY OF STUPIDITY | Kirkus Reviews

While some of the writing here was interesting, it ultimately was not enough to redeem the rest of the books' glaring flaws. Alright, we are all stupid. If you think that you're by far smarter and intelligent than your next door neighbour or the colleague in the next cubicle, a stupid brain has concocted that thought for you. It's the stupidity alarm ringing.It reads more like a show off of the author's use of English on top of a compilation of articles from various scholars on the subject. My low IQ forbids me to learn anything from it. Indeed, I deem it disorganized, jumpy and not readable at all. It would be beside the point to conduct large-scale psychological experiments to investigate collective folly. E If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire. dominate, or escape, the stupidity that constitutes everything that is human”, wrote Matthijs Van Boxsel. A : It's a man, or more rarely a woman, who accords himself special advantages in his social life and feels immune from reproach. The typical example is the asshole who cuts line at the post office, granting himself a privilege that's normally reserved for pregnant women and emergencies. His feels like his time is more valuable than theirs.