Stupidity?

Question

Genetic/ Hereditary or Learned behaviour?

Answer 1

Have met people with Honours Degrees who are thick as a plank when not talking about their speciality. Good job there's not a law against it or most of us would be in jail.

Answer 2

It depends how the word is used, many ignorant people on Yahoo answers call people stupid because they don't know something, which they themselves know, that is not stupidity it is ignorance.
There is no shame in either ignorance, or stupidity, but a stupid person would be ignorant of most common sense things, where someone who is merely ignorant can still learn.

Studidity can be obtained by an accident, whether prior to birth, at the time of birth, or during ones life.
The inabilty to learn can be learnt behaviour, which can give the impression of stupidity.
Intentional stupid acts are learnt behaviour.

Answer 3

I think it is learned behaviour, We all have the capacity to better our intelligence, With a few exeptions.Ie.the BUSH family in that their case it is Genetic,Hereditary and Learned.

Answer 4

Genetic

Answer 5

I believe there will never be an accurate definition or perception of what stupidity and cleverness really consist of. Firstly no one knows the range or number of levels of intelligence between an extremely stupid person who cannot pass a simple maths or language test and a highly intelligent genius. Are there 15 levels or 50?
Secondly the word 'stupid' is used very loosely when someone is careless in speaking, writing or committing an action that makes another party angry, sad or disadvantaged in any manner. Any action that causes a person to be fined or jailed will be concluded as 'stupid', even though misfortune is the more likely reason. A jovial or very active or talkative person is seen as stupid the moment he says or does something inappropriate. Many of our friends and relatives very often call an unpopular person stupid at the slightest opportunity, just for the fun of it.

Answer 6

I think it can be both. I think a lot of women assume the ditzy blond personna - when in fact they're more inteligent than they let on....if acting a certain way gets you attention, of course you're going to keep it up.....so there's definate possibility for it being a learned behaviour with enough attention gained from it....

Answer 7

Its all relative - apples do not fall far from the tree that bore them.

The majority of stupid behaviour is inherited in two ways, some folks just don't mature fast, and that is an hereditary quirk, in that they learn only the hard way, and some learn good lessons this way, others just continue to make the same goofs time after time.

Others are caused by a small gene pool, too many cousins in the family tree. Inbreeding can cause disease or minor mental inflictions or both.

finally there is the leaned behaviour, some of us are just gullible to copying from others, and if that peer person is an idiot, then we are going to grow up with some daft habits. What you refer to as stupidity, is perhaps this last category. Though not inherited, is gleaned from somebody who has inherited a few sandwiches missing from his/her picnic.

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 or a person's 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 (and thus stupidity) such as IQ tests - which measure the ability to successfully undergo IQ tests, and not intelligence itself.

however, the human gene pool is a strange lottery, and two idiots can produce a smart kid, so there is not betting on the outcomes. However, smart kids generally have at least one smart parent, and live in an open minded environment when they are developing the basic building blocks of social behaviour.

However, because of peer pessure, stupidity causes stupidity - it is self promoting. The more stupidity there exists in a society, or a person, the harder it is to remove. Ignorance looks pale in comparison! Ignorance can be countered easily, but the ultimate stumbling block of personal well being is stupidity. But to pose your question here, you first have to quantify stupidity?

Stupidity is commonly thought to be situational. Academics, especially those lacking the more esoteric social skills, can be considered stupid by socialites. In turn, those socialites who lack the intellectual acumen, and have sense enough to avoid highly cerebral company, can be called stupid. This is not quite correct, though, as a person who displays ignorance is not necessarily stupid; stupidity is the act by an ignorant or over-bold person which engenders damaging consequences. As Forrest Gump famously reminds us, 'Stupid is as stupid does.'

If - sometimes stupid people can learn from their own mistakes, and thus become less stupid, then it would be erradicated from our society, but there are no reliable statistics for this matter. The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.

Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake. The only way a stupid act could be noble is by cleansing the gene pool of another tiny vector of stupidity, that's how. so I return to my argument that stupidy is genetic, and highly contageous!

Answer 8

The word “Stupid” means acting in an unintelligent or careless manner. Therefore when someone chooses to act this way it is thier choice. Yes it can be "learned" but the possibility is that they have given themselves the "right" to behave such way is probably more plausable. All of which of course takes out the possibility of a genetic link.

Answer 9

I'm going to step outside the box and say physiological, first and foremost. Physiological problems (birth defect, physical or chemical brain injury, etc,) can adversely effect intellect far more than heredity or social environment -- and may be undiagnosed.

Putting that aside, what seems to be a trend of increasing stupidity suggests that the environment is playing a large role. We've all read the polls which say 50% of Americans believe that Saddam had WMD's and was responsible for 9/11 when there is no evidence, and 40% of Americans believe that the Bible is the actual word of God to be taken literally, word-for-word. (I don't want to insult anyone, but with its many inherent contradictions, one cannot take the Bible seriously if one takes it literally.)

The first chapter of The Assault on Reason looks at the dominant media of our time, television, and how watching television triggers addictive and semi-hypnotic responses in the viewer's brain. When a Florida appeal court ruled that falsifying news isn't actually against the law, it opened up television as a full propaganda tool for whoever can buy advertising and influence programming -- and particularly for the six corporate conglomerates which own 90% of all media in the U.S.

The "idiot box" has lived up to its name and turned us into nations of idiots. Welcome to the Stupid Ages.

Answer 10

It's a learned behaviour inherited by genetically atltered atheist.

:-)

Answer 11

Behaviour. Genetics would be a very convenient excuse for all the stupid people now wouldn't it?