We don't often call people stupid. Unlike its sibling concepts of dumbness and idiocy, stupidity isn't really a personality trait. Of course, you might think someone is stupid, but when we use the word, we tend to limit it to moments of stupidity. We say, "Well, that was a stupid thing to do" or "You're being stupid." Stupidity is a blip.
In fact, somewhat ironically, stupidity is often defined in contrast to otherwise normal and intelligent activities. We say "you're being stupid" because we expect the person to be sensible otherwise.
Stupidity is not tied to IQ — as dumbness is — or the ability to assess risks — as being foolish is. Stupidity is an action, one defined by its implications. A Nobel Prize-winning professor can be stupid. A five-year-old can be stupid. We can all be stupid. But do enough stupid things in too short a period, and people might start whispering, "I think he might just be stupid."
So, here is Carlo Cipolla's "golden law of stupidity" on how to spot and avoid acts of stupidity.
The golden law of stupidity
Cipolla was an economist, historian, and popular Italian academic who died at the turn of the millennium. He spent his life studying the tides of history: the ups and the downs, the heroic peaks and terrible crashes. He looked at history in broad strokes and socioeconomic hues. He examined the individuals who came to define a particular historical epoch. And, after decades of study, Cipolla wrote The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity.
Cipolla lists five laws in his paper, but the central and self-acclaimed "golden law" of stupidity is Law Number Three:
"A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or group of people when he or she does not benefit and may even suffer losses."
According to Cipolla, stupidity is defined entirely by the effects of an action or decision. When he states in his second law that "the probability that a person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person," he is also saying that stupidity is independent of other intellectual or moral virtues. Because of this independence, anyone can do something stupid. Almost everyone will. This is why, as his first law states, "everyone always and inevitably underestimates the number of stupid people in circulation."
The four phenotypes
Everything you do leads to one of four outcomes. It gives you a benefit, it gives you a loss, it gives others a benefit, or it gives others a loss. Most actions are small, simple, and self-concerned. Making myself a coffee or scratching an itch on my left shoulder benefits me, and most people aren't affected. An entire day can go by entirely made up of these small, low-impact actions that Cipolla calls, somewhat cruelly, "ineffective."
Cipolla's theory of stupidity is about any action that involves two of the outcomes listed above. And if we divide our actions into a series of these couplets, then we also arrive at four different types of behavior. These behaviors define four different phenotypes:
Intelligent. Intelligence is defined by the ability to help both yourself and others. For example, you and a friend split a "buy one, get one free" deal at the grocery store. You both get an item you need at a discount.
Stupid. As we've seen, stupidity is causing a loss to yourself and others. When I put dish soap in the tumble dryer, the sticky, green, unfixable mess made everyone worse off. "That was stupid, Jonny," my wife said, and I nodded.
Helpless. The helpless are those who help others but do not help themselves. In a less economic tone, we might even call this "self-sacrificial." This might be good, at times — as when I wake up early with my kids. But it can also be taken too far. As Penny Reid put it, "Don't set yourself on fire trying to keep others warm."
Bandit. The bandits are those who help themselves and cause others a loss. You'll find a bandit cutting in line and hugging the bowl of potato chips close. Of course, you'll also find them robbing banks and stealing cars.
Avoid the stupid bandits
It goes without saying that we should avoid the bandits. And, in some ways, this is easier than avoiding stupidity. We all know who the troublemakers are. Word gets around. When you get burned, you stay away from the fire.
It's harder to entirely purge yourself of stupidity or avoid stupid people — simply because, as Law Two implies, there are rarely any confounding factors. In this week's Mini Philosophy newsletter, I give a brief overview of the various — and often contradictory — definitions of stupidity in the history of philosophy (and which is my favorite). But Cipolla's stupidity can come from any source. It might be the foolish, imprudent person who simply didn't think things through. It might be someone who has a "blind spot." It might be someone who is ignorant or uneducated about all the necessary and relevant facts. It might be the buffoon who accidentally put dish soap in the tumble dryer.
But we can take note. We can watch those who have a habit of repeatedly making situations worse. We can remember those who often make their own and other people's lives worse. And then, we can avoid them. We can slowly shuffle away and cut them out of our lives. It's quite unfortunate for my wife, though, that she happens to be married to one.