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Stupidity
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Main page "Stupid" redirects here. For other uses, see Stupidity (disambiguation) and Stupid (disambiguation).
Contents
Stupidity is a lack of intelligence, understanding, reason, or wit. It may be
Current events
innate, assumed or reactive. The word stupid comes from the Latin word
Random article
stupere. Stupid characters are often used for comedy in fictional stories.
About Wikipedia
Contact us Walter B. Pitkin called stupidity "evil", but in a more Romantic spirit William
Donate Blake and Carl Jung believed stupidity can be the mother of wisdom.

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Help 1 Etymology
Learn to edit 2 Definition
Community portal 3 Playing stupid
Recent changes 4 Intellectual stupidity
Upload file
5 Persisting in folly

Tools 6 In culture
An Allegory of Folly (early
6.1 In comedy
What links here 16th century) by Quentin
Related changes 6.2 In literature Matsys
Special pages 6.3 In film
Permanent link 7 See also
Page information 8 References
Cite this page 9 Further reading
Wikidata item 10 External links

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The root word stupid,[1] which can serve as an adjective or noun, comes from
In other projects the Latin verb stupere, for being numb or astonished, and is related to
Wikimedia stupor.[2] In Roman culture, the stupidus was the professional fall guy in the
Commons
theatrical mimes.[3]
Wikiquote
According to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, the words "stupid" and
Languages
"stupidity" entered the English language in 1541. Since then, stupidity has
‫العربية‬ taken place along with "fool," "idiot," "dumb," "moron," and related concepts as
Español
a pejorative for misdeeds, whether purposeful or accidental, due to absence of Engraving after Pieter
Bahasa Indonesia
mental capacity. Breughel the Elder, 1556.
ಕನ#ಡ caption: Al rijst den esele ter
Bahasa Melayu scholen om leeren, ist eenen
Português Definition esele hij en zal gheen peert
weder keeren ("Even if the
Русский Stupidity is a quality or state of being stupid, or an act or idea that exhibits Ass travels to school to learn,
!"#$ as a horse he will not return")
properties of being stupid.[4] In a character study of "The Stupid Man"
attributed to the Greek philosopher Theophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BC),
38 more stupidity was defined as "mental slowness in speech or action". The modern English word "stupid" has a broad

Edit links range of application, from being slow of mind (indicating a lack of intelligence, care or reason), dullness of
feeling or sensation (torpidity, senseless, insensitivity), or lacking interest or point (vexing, exasperating). It
can either imply a congenital lack of capacity for reasoning, or a temporary state of daze, or slow-
mindedness.

In Understanding Stupidity, James F. Welles defines stupidity this way: "The term may be used to designate a
mentality which is considered to be informed, deliberate and maladaptive." Welles distinguishes stupidity from
ignorance; where stupidity means one must know they are acting in their own worst interest in that it must
be a choice, not a forced act or accident. Lastly, it requires the activity to be maladaptive, in that it is in the
worst interest of the actor, and specifically done to prevent adaption to new data or existing
circumstances."[5]

Playing stupid
Eric Berne described the game of "Stupid" as having "the thesis...'I laugh with you at my own clumsiness and
stupidity.'"[6] He points out that the player has the advantage of lowering other people's expectations, and so
evading responsibility and work; but that he or she may still come through under pressure, like the
proverbially stupid younger son.[7]

Wilfred Bion considered that psychological projection created a barrier against learning anything new, and
thus its own form of pseudo-stupidity.[8]

Intellectual stupidity
Otto Fenichel maintained that "quite a percentage of so-called feeble-mindedness turns out to be pseudo-
debility, conditioned by inhibition ... Every intellect begins to show weakness when affective motives are
working against it".[9] He suggests that "people become stupid ad hoc, that is, when they do not want to
understand, where understanding would cause anxiety or guilt feeling, or would endanger an existing neurotic
equilibrium."[10]

In rather different fashion, Doris Lessing argued that "there is no fool like an intellectual ... a kind of clever
stupidity, bred out of a line of logic in the head, nothing to do with experience."[11]

Persisting in folly
In the Romantic reaction to Enlightenment wisdom, a valorisation of the irrational, the foolish, and the stupid
emerged, as in William Blake's dictum that "if the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise";[12] or
Jung's belief that "it requires no art to become stupid; the whole art lies in extracting wisdom from stupidity.
Stupidity is the mother of the wise, but cleverness never."[13]

Similarly, Michel Foucault argued for the necessity of stupidity to re-connect with what our articulate
categories exclude, to recapture the alterity of difference.[14]

In culture
In comedy
The fool or buffoon has been a central character in much comedy. Alford and
Alford found that humor based on stupidity was prevalent in "more complex"
societies as compared to some other forms of humor.[15] Some analysis of
Shakespeare's comedy has found that his characters tend to hold mutually
contradictory positions; because this implies a lack of careful analysis it
indicates stupidity on their part.[16]

Today there is a wide array of television shows that showcase stupidity such
as The Simpsons.[17] Goofball comedy is a class of naive, zany humour typified
by actor Leslie Nielsen.[18][19]

In literature
In his book A Short Introduction to the History of Stupidity (1932), Walter B.
Pitkin wrote: A stereotyped image of
American stupidity (later
Stupidity can easily be proved the supreme Social Evil. Three factors claimed by MAD Magazine to
combine to establish it as such. First and foremost, the number of become Alfred E. Neuman),
used in an editorial critical of
stupid people is legion. Secondly, most of the power in business, abolishing the poll tax in the
finance, diplomacy and politics is in the hands of more or less stupid American South, with a caption
showing the person wants to
individuals. Finally, high abilities are often linked with serious vote but is too ignorant to
stupidity.[20] understand what voting means

In film
Stupidity was a 2003 movie directed by Albert Nerenberg.[21] It depicted examples and analyses of stupidity
in modern society and media, and sought "to explore the prospect that willful ignorance has increasingly
become a strategy for success in the realms of politics and entertainment."[22]

Idiocracy, a Mike Judge film from 2006, explored a dystopian future America where a person of average IQ is
cryogenically frozen and wakes up 500 years later to find that mankind, increasingly dependent on
technology built by previous generations that it does not properly maintain or understand, has regressed in
intelligence to the standards of current-era mental retardation, and that he has become the de facto
smartest person on Earth. Americans have become so stupid that society faces famine and collapse, and
according to Pete Vonder Haar of Film Threat, "...each laugh is tempered with the unsettling realization that
[Judge's] vision of mankind's future might not be too far off the mark."[23]

See also
Anti-intellectualism Dysrationalia Idiot (person)
Borderline intellectual Extraordinary Popular Delusions Ignorance
functioning and the Madness of Crowds Illusory superiority
Bounded rationality Genius In Praise of Folly
Dumbing down Gullibility IQ
The Dunciad Hanlon's razor Pigasus Award
Dunning–Kruger effect

References
1. ^ "stupid" . Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
2. ^ "stupor" . Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
3. ^ Juvenal: The Sixteen Satires, translated by Peter Green, Penguin, 1982, p. 126
4. ^ "stupidity" . Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 18 January 2009.
5. ^ James F. Welles, Ph. D. "Understanding Stupidity" . Archived from the original on August 24, 2011. Retrieved June 7,
2011.
6. ^ Eric Berne, Games People Play (Penguin 1968) p. 138
7. ^ Berne, p. 138-9
8. ^ Salman Akhtar, Comprehensive Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (2010) "Arrogance"
9. ^ Otto Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (London 1946) p. 180
10. ^ Fenichel, p. 181
11. ^ Doris Lessing, Under my Skin (London 1994) p. 122
12. ^ William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (London 1927) p. 7
13. ^ C. G. Jung, Alchemical Studies (1978) p. 180
14. ^ Michel Foucault, Language, Counter-Memory, Practice (1980) p. 188–90
15. ^ Finnegan Alford; Richard Alford. A Holo-Cultural Study of Humor. Ethos 9(2), pg 149–164.
16. ^ N Frye. A Natural Perspective: The Development of Shakespearean Comedy and Romance. Columbia University Press,
1995.
17. ^ R Hobbs. The Simpsons Meet Mark Twain: Analyzing Popular Media Texts in the Classroom. The English Journal, 1998.
18. ^ Canadian Press (29 November 2010). " 'The Naked Gun' actor Leslie Nielsen dies in Florida hospital at age 84" . CP24 –
Toronto's Breaking News. Bell Media. Retrieved 22 June 2012. "Leslie's huge heart and fierce intelligence defined goofball
comedy and he was its undisputed master."[permanent dead link] – Paul Gross.
19. ^ Once More to the Well of Goofball Comedy , New York Times
20. ^ Pitkin, Walter B. (1932). A Short Introduction to the History of Stupidity. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 6.
OCLC 530002 .
21. ^ "Stupidity" . IMDB.com. Retrieved June 17, 2011.
22. ^ "Stupidity (2003)" . rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved June 17, 2011.
23. ^ "Idiocracy (2006)" . rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved July 24, 2017.

Further reading
Avital Ronell (2002). Stupidity. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-07127-0.
Alice von Hildebrand (2008-01-29). "When is Stupidity a Sin?" .
Edmund Bergler (1998). The talent for stupidity: the psychology of the bungler, the incompetent, and the
ineffectual. International Universities. ISBN 978-0-8236-6345-3.
L. Loewenfeld (1909). "Über die Dummbeit: Eine Umschau in Gebiete menschlicher Unzulänglichkeit" (in German).
Paul Tabori (1962). The natural science of stupidity. Prentice-Hall International.
Steven J. Bartlett (2005). "Moral Intelligence and the Pathology of Human Stupidity". The pathology of
man: a study of human evil. C.C. Thomas. ISBN 978-0-398-07557-6.
William B. Helmreich (2011). What Was I Thinking? The Dumb Things We Do and How to Avoid Them .
Taylor. ISBN 978-1589795976.
Giancarlo Livraghi (2009). The Power of Stupidity. Pescara: Monti&Ambrosini. ISBN 978-88-89479-15-5.
Robert J. Sternberg, ed. (2003). Why Smart People Can Be So Stupid. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-
300-10170-6.
Stephen Greenspan (2008). "Foolish action in adults with intellectual disabilities: the forgotten problem of
risk-unawareness". In Laraine Masters Glidden (ed.). International Review of Research in Mental
Retardation. 36. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-374476-0.
James F. Welles (1988). Story of Stupidity: A History of Western Idiocy from the Days of Greece to the
Present. Mount Pleasant Press. ISBN 978-0961772918.

External links
"Unskilled and unaware of it: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Look up stupidity in
Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments" The authors received the Wiktionary, the free
dictionary.
2000 Ig Nobel Prize in psychology.
‘A Stupidity-Based Theory of Organisations’ , published in the Journal of Wikiquote has
quotations related to:
Management Studies
Stupidity

Wikimedia Commons
has media related to
Stupidity.

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This page was last edited on 30 June 2021, at 19:40 (UTC).

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