Is stupidity genetics? or adaptation?

Question

no im not talking about inborn mental disorders

Answer 1

oddly enough, stupidity seems to be something that you have to learn.

Answer 2

Adaptation by natural selection is inherently genetic, so ...

you must mean "Is stupidity learned?"

If we truly took a darwinian approach to investigate human behavior by geneological means, you would find less intelligent people having the most children time and time again. Those that reproduce the most are the most fit.. this is the meaning of "survival of the fittest".

If intelligence, reflected by behavior, is genetic (which I don't at all believe), and the less intelligent happen to be the most fit, then yes, stupidity is an adaptation that is being selected for.

This is part of the reason why I don't understand people who revere human evolution as a process that will derive veritable superheros and render our species neo-neanderthal. If you believe intelligence is being selected for, I suggest not.




Socio-biologically, on the other hand, stupidity is the failsafe terrain of the major majority who know that their ability to change the vicissitudes of their environment is completely ineffectual. Stupidity is the panacea for the hopeless. It's a terrific/terrible coping strategy, prodigious in memetic reproduction to the lauded point of virtue.

Many are so deluded as to embrace the machine that controls them... Ain't that right "John Skerry"? For real, when people are raped on a daily basis, the best thing to do is to come to enjoy it. Or, better yet, identify with the rapist. It takes Pitifully egregious amounts of trauma to rectify such a thing, but the human mind is amenable to great absurdity-- stupidity being a great boon to the hordes of otherwise malcontents, and those that profit from them.

Answer 3

Stupidity is a little of both. Genetics makes you either quick minded or slow minded. Why do you think people say good genetics when the father/mother is good at something and the daughter/son has that trait too. Then again, it is adaptation because your environment leads you to that change. Genetics is a starting point (one of the reasons we also have autism) but adaptation is what keeps us smart or stupid. Naturally, if your house talks about smart stuff, you learn more.

Answer 4

Genetics is probably the primary reason.

Environment can cause mental disorders.. Example, improper feeding of a child in the every years can cause improper brain and body development which could lead to minor disabilities in learning.

Answer 5

Stupidity is not genetic, yes I think from some points it is adaptive. Where a person's surrounding could really affect their ways of thought and believe. If a person could explore more in life as in to gain omre answers in all then they would broaden their thoughts and interest.

Answer 6

Stupidity can only be evaluated in terms of survival.
If a genius is killed in an ocean by a shark who is smarter?
Stupidity can only be those mental processes that work against the survival of the lifeform having them.

As such it changes with the enviroment.
Therefore........ it is an adaptation.

Answer 7

some of it, people who are not the best specimens are breeding because we have bent the rule of survival of the fittest. no longer do the strongest most adaptable rise to the top of the gene pool, now those who would never have survived centuries ago. the damaged ,the lazy, and the like breed constantly. therefore humans are becoming overpopulated and our defects are becoming more widespread. (before you attack me i didn't say anything against the disabled or the slow i merely answered a question truthfully, which says nothing about my beliefs)

Answer 8

one can be born dumb....but stupidity....

Our Living Language In ordinary spoken English, a sentence such as He is dumb will be interpreted to mean "He is stupid" rather than "He lacks the power of speech." "Lacking the power of speech" is, however, the original sense of the word, but it has been eclipsed by the meaning "stupid." For this change in meaning, it appears that the Germans are responsible. German has a similar and related word dumm that means "stupid," and over time, as a result of the waves of German immigrants to the United States, it has come to influence the meaning of English dumb. This is one of dozens of marks left by German on American English. Some words, like kindergarten, dachshund, and schnapps still have a German feel or are associated to some extent with Germany, but others, like bum, cookbook, fresh (in the meaning "impertinent"), rifle, and noodle have become so thoroughly Americanized their German origins may surprise some.

ahhhhhhhhh.,..stu·pid (stpd, sty-)
adj. stu·pid·er, stu·pid·est
1. Slow to learn or understand; obtuse.
2. Tending to make poor decisions or careless mistakes.
3. Marked by a lack of intelligence or care; foolish or careless: a stupid mistake.
4. Dazed, stunned, or stupefied.
5. Pointless; worthless: a stupid job.

That one can also be born stupid, as in slow to learn. So one can be genetically challenged through the intelligence of ones parents....

However, stupidity also can be adapated through ones own behavorior and actions. So, I think under your questions is the underlining answer.....stupidity as we know it today is something someone has adapted to, because they have chosen to a point to be what they want the world to see them as...stupid.

Answer 9

Stupidity is the quality or condition of being stupid, or lacking intelligence, as opposed to being merely ignorant or uneducated. This quality can be attributed to both an individual himself or his actions, words or beliefs . The term can thus also refer to poor use of judgement, or insensitivity to nuances in a person who is otherwise intelligent. The determination of who is stupid is relatively difficult, despite attempts to measure intelligence such as IQ tests.

Answer 10

('tinkerbelle' seems to have been reading Mein Kampf.)
You can have a high IQ and still be capable of stupididity. Stupid as a word would mean to be sporadic as in mistakes.
We all say or do something stupid on occasion.

Answer 11

both...you can't fix stupid....but there is a difference

people are BORN stupid.....without ability to learn things...without common sense

but environment makes people unintelligent...not stupid....but unaware of facts...knowledge...etc...it's like being really protected and sheltered and not knowing what a condom is.....that's the stupidity enviornment gives you whereas the stupidity life gives you is not being able to pass school