The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity by Carlo M. Cipolla

Every category you can imagine – gender, ethnicity, nationality, education, income – has a fixed percentage of stupid people. And yet… This brings us to the 2nd law: Law 2: The probability that a person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.Ĭipolla postulates that stupidity is a variable that remains constant in all populations.

This problem is compounded by the biased assumption that some people are intelligent because of superficial factors such as their job, education, or other characteristics that we believe rule out stupidity.įor example, Nabilla is excluded because she is a multimillionaire. No matter how many idiots you suspect you are surrounded by, you are invariably underestimating the total. The question is: what category are you in? Law 1: Everyone always and inevitably underestimates the number of stupid people in circulation All are defined on the basis of a win/lose concept, slightly echoing the prisoner’s dilemma. He divides humanity into four main categories: Intelligent, Bandit, Helpless, Stupid. In fact there is no explanation-or better, there is only one explanation: the person in question is stupid.In 1976, Professor Cipolla published a 60-page essay describing the fundamental laws of a force he perceived as the greatest existential threat to humanity: stupidity.

Nobody knows, understands, or can possibly explain why that preposterous creature does what he does. Our daily life is mostly made up of cases in which we lose money and/or time and/or energy and/or appetite, cheerfulness, and good health because of the improbable action of some preposterous creature who has nothing to gain and indeed gains nothing from causing us embarrassment, difficulties or harm. But upon thoughtful reflection you must admit that these are not the events that punctuate most frequently our daily life. We also recollect cases in which a fellow took an action that resulted in his loss and in our gain: we had to deal with a helpless person.* We can recollect cases in which a fellow took an action by which both parties gained: he was intelligent.

“We all recollect occasions in which a fellow took an action that resulted in his gain and in our loss: we had to deal with a bandit.

The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity by Carlo M. Cipolla