One need not look far to find breathtaking acts of stupidity committed by people who are smart, or even brilliant. The behavior of clever individuals-from presidents to prosecutors to professors-is at times so amazingly stupid as to seem inexplicable. Why do otherwise intelligent people think and behave in ways so stupid that they sometimes destroy their livelihoods or even their lives?
This is an investigation of psychological research to see what it can tell us about stupidity in everyday life. The contributors to the volume-scholars in various areas of human intelligence-present examples of people messing up their lives, and offer insights into the reasons for such behavior. From a variety of perspectives, the contributors discuss: The nature and theory of stupidityHow stupidity contributes to stupid behaviorWhether stupidity is measurable. While many millions of dollars are spent each year on intelligence research and testing to determine who has the ability to succeed, next to nothing is spent to determine who will make use of their intelligence and not squander it by behaving stupidly. The contributors focus on the neglected side of this discussion, reviewing the full range of theory and research on stupid behavior and analyzing what it tells us about how people can avoid stupidity and its devastating consequences.
"This original book gathers together the best thinking and research on what causes smart people to do foolish things. A highly original work with an exceptional list of contributors."
Martin Ford, graduate school of education, George Mason University
"One way to generate interesting, new research ideas in science is to take an old idea and turn it on its head (as Yale social psychologist, William McGuire once said, 'the opposite of a great truth is also a great truth'). In this volume, Bob Sternberg and the experts he has assembled attempt to understand the psychological basis of narrow models of intelligence. Foolishness runs rampant-from the
Peter Salovey, Chris Argyris Professor and chair of psychology, Yale University
"Professor Sternberg and the experts he has assembled attempt to understand the psychological basis of stupidity. They succeed admirably, and while doing so, reveal the limitations of our field's traditional and rather narrow models of intelligence. By revealing the many ways in which smart people behave maladaptively and the social conditions that give rise to such bungling, the contributors to t
