Dear András Györfi

Perhaps, measuring the inteligence is easier than measuring the stupidity.

Best regards

I never gave this idea much thought, but apparently there is such a scale:

http://www.opscentre.com.au/blog/a-new-metric-for-business-continuity-the-stupidity-index/

http://bizshifts-trends.com/tag/stupidity-index/

I haven't checked on the scientific underpinnings of this scale, but I'll leave that to others who may be interested

Ariel

Ariel,

That is a normal people’s approach to stupidity: to not give much thought to this uncomfortable idea. It’s like when you are ascending in an elevator, which is stopped halfway by a guy with red maculous eruption on his face which starts coughing. You may start thinking, this could be contagious – like the urban legend which says that stupidity also can be contagious: the more time you spend with stupid, the more you will look like them. So, you’ll decide to stop the elevator and climb few floors in a microorganism-free environment – or, conversly, you’ll avoid stupids and don’t give much thought to this idea. Helas, this century-old perception starts to become closer to an ostrich-policy. Ariel, you can not find a stupid-free environment anymore, to step out like from your imaginary elevator. Stupidity’s force started changing the economy, the climate and the biosphere. Human stupidity became the greatest menace to the survival of our species – after a wave of extinction caused in hundreds of other species.

Instead of stepping out the elevator, I would propose to analyze, measure it – and to find a cure, if possible.

Alvin,

That’s a pragmatic approach. I have also used this path and the ideas mentioned above by Ariel in the articles of Cipolla and Alvesson/Spicer. But I went further and worked out a procedure to measure stupidity based on the pithagorean theorem, the principle of antique sundials and Cipolla’s approach.

The link to the english translation of my article is here

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272886688_The_Role_of_Stupidity_in_the_Society_and_in_the_Health-care_Systems

However, I would be glad to learn about other approaches.

Article The Role of Stupidity in the Society and in the Health-care Systems

“The modern English word "stupid" has a broad 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.

These are Cipolla's five fundamental laws of stupidity:

1. Always and inevitably each of us underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.

2. The probability that a given person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic possessed by that person.

3. A person is stupid if they cause damage to another person or group of people without experiencing personal gain, or even worse causing damage to themselves in the process.

4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the harmful potential of stupid people; they constantly forget that at any time anywhere, and in any circumstance, dealing with or associating themselves with stupid individuals invariably constitutes a costly error.

5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person there is.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stupidity

There is the IQ measure, which is very disputable, but at the same time is a measure of stupidity!

Dear Costas,

In my oppinion we are discussing about functional neurocognitive disorders. The colloquial term for functional neurocognitive disorder is stupidity – which is an ancestral human trait. Stupidity served from immemorial times as an inexhaustible theme to start a conversation. Neanderthalians and modern H. Sapiens alike used to start their communication when the first sunrays enlighted their cave by asking these three questions:

1.What will be the weather today?

2. What will we eat today?

3. How can be the leader of our horde so stupid?

Essentially, stupidity is encountered when someone uses her/his neurocognitive abilities in a suboptimal manner – and as a consequence, both the actor and her/his companion(s)/victim(s) will suffer. To establish the diagnosis and degree of stupidity, the assessment of the caused damages is necessary. However, it must be emphasized, that bad decisions, damages and sufferings can be caused by other phenomena also: choices made under pression, compulsion or in information-deprived situation are not necessarily stupid. But even taking in account these mitigating circumstances, we have to admit that stupidity is not only the most ancient – but also the most pervading modern human trait. Our daily encounter with stupid people is unevitable at the workplace, in the street and the plazas, we see them on TV-screens and at political gatherings. We accept that we have to endure their niggling. Initially we react with overindulgence, then we become chagrined and eventually pissed off – that’s the moment when one gets an impulse to write an article on this issue...

Dear András,

Your approach is to technical! I prefer something more intuitive! Now days there is a tendency to code almost all natural behaviours, as some kind of "neurocognitive disorders". See,

Saving Normal: An Insider's Revolt against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life Paperback – August 12, 2014

by M.D. Frances Allen (Author) 

Hi, Costas.

I also consider myself an insider in terms of fight the overmedicalization of many conditions. Stupidity is one of these conditions: stupidity is not a disease and should be treated accordingly. The accent of my approach is on the word functional. It is about a functional neurocognitive disorder, which needs a functional treatment, and by no means vitamines, cerebral vasodilators or psychoactive drugs.

To meter and apply the correct dosage of these functional measures, the severity of stupidity has to be assessed. Indeed, in my article linked above there are some technical details and a formula to calculate one’s stupidity. As much as I know, it is the first mathematical formulation of stupidity (and hopefully the IgNobel Committee will be noticed, as the formula can be applied to humankind’s stupidity also:-)

Dear András Györfi

Perhaps, measuring the inteligence is easier than measuring the stupidity.

Best regards

stupidity=1/smartness

Absolutely, @ Costas