For as long as I can remember, it’s always been a lingering question on my mind on how the intellectually gifted can make dumb mistakes. Going to school filled with “gifted and talented” students and living with my own mini-Einstein in the form of my little sister, my curiosity towards the subjects have been growing bigger and bigger. How can such intelligent people make mistakes that even the intellectually-challenged find amusing?
When considering the word intelligence, most, if not all people will think of analytical intelligence which is measured by a person’s IQ. A common misconception that people have is that those that are considered to be analytically intelligent will naturally be emotionally, creatively and practically intelligent. On the occasion of measuring a person’s IQ, only a person’s analytical intelligence is measured; dismissing emotional, creative and practical intelligence which plays a large role in dictating that way people solve problems in novel situations.
In order to make a rational decision, these three types of intelligence are needed but when someone lacks in these types of intelligence, the decision made is likely to be considered illogical or irrational. “When it comes to solving social problems, the most intelligent people are more likely than those of average intelligence to have novel but silly ideas, and therefore to believe and behave maladaptively.” (Charlton, 2009)
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As these individuals often believe that achievements are all that matters, other people and emotions are deemed to be distractions hence contributing to a lack in EQ. An ironic twist is that those that are considered part of the upper echelons of academics are individuals with some of the highest EQs, which could’ve potentially aided them in making decisions leading up to their current positions in life. Examples of such individuals are Leonardo Da Vinci, Galileo Galileo and Rosalind Franklin who were both emotionally and analytically intelligent, facing scrutiny for their works but continuing to persevere onwards resulting in breakthroughs in their own fields of expertise.
After reading a myriad of articles for information on this topic, a definitive trend could be seen in which each article mentioned common sense in some shape or form, whether it would be for a brief sentence or for a whole section. Regardless of the differences, majority of articles agree that one of many contributing reasons to why smart people make silly mistakes is due an insufficient amount of common sense.
Published in a study written by Bruce Charlton, a psychiatrist from Newcastle University, Charlton claims that those with high analytical intelligence will appear “silly” in social situations caused by a lack in certain other brain functions. “An increasing relative level of IQ brings with it a tendency differentially to over-use general intelligence in problem-solving, and to override those instinctive and spontaneous forms of evolved behaviour which could be termed common sense.”
“1 Charlton suggests that the lack of common sense can be linked to preferred usage of abstract analysis in ordinary situations that don’t require this line of thinking. Before going into detail, firstly, what is common sense? “Common sense is variously described by psychologists as a form of practical “decision-making” as well as the “ability to imagine the consequences of an action”.” (Staufenberg, 2016) Although it may be needed in dealing with novel situations, because they are so used to dealing with these problems instead of real-life problems, it becomes routine to use this line of thinking instead of responding to the situation with a realistic perspective.
But how do these people lack one of the most basic skills a person can develop? One of the many contributing factors is overconfidence in one’s ability. A prime example of overconfidence in one’s ability leading to the making of unfortunate decisions can be seen in students, specifically those that stand on the top of their grade. As most these students know that they are “smart”, this reason will serve as justification to think that they are better than other fellow students. This is called the self-serving bias.
Because people try to cling onto the illusion that they are above average, majority will tend to ignore crucial facts that may prove themselves wrong. As these opposing facts are discarded from the person’s mind, this may influence the final decision, possibly creating a negative impact on the person. Additionally, as being smart can be considered part of the person’s identity, being proven wrong from their viewpoint can be equated to a personal attack on their intelligence.
In an article written by Dr Ellen Hendriksen, Hendriksen equates the pleasure of taking drugs to the thrill of chasing up information in order to prove their side of the argument to be correct. “And it’s this second kind of pleasure the thrill of the chase—that helps us do so many stupid things. Even when we know there will be no “liking” pleasure and we’ll regret it in the morning, we do it anyway.” Hendriksen explains that it the feeling of adrenaline that one receives from chasing the information that can cloud a person’s thinking which leads to the making of poor decisions.
Learning from past mistakes and from other people’s feedback is what improves a person but when you add in unwillingness to accept constructive criticism and a refusal that they’re wrong, it makes learning near impossible and can lead to toxic relationships for whoever offered the criticism in the first place even if it was offered with good intentions. Often times, the person will even question the qualifications of whoever was giving them feedback, making them even more unwilling to take it.
Linked to this are assumptions that are the basis on which decisions are made on. If these assumptions were wrong, it will naturally affect everything else leaving behind flawed decisions and conclusions. Adding the unwillingness to learn, a constant cycle of flawed assumptions will occur leaving the person to make even more reckless mistakes.
From the points made above, overconfidence can be said to be the root cause. When going through a good portion of your life being praised for your intelligence, it’s hard not to be confident in your skills but it’s because of this confidence that leads to the flawed assumptions which in turn lead to bad decisions. As most of the time people who are caught in arguments only see from their perspective, they do not realize the damage that their actions may have caused and since those who are intelligent refuse to see anything opposing their arguments, it makes it hard for the person to revaluate on where they went wrong.
Another contributing factor as to why smart people make illogical decisions is what psychoanalysts call repetition compulsion, the recurrence of behavioural habits that lead to the same disastrous results. Although it may seem stupid to the rest of society, intelligent people will develop an almost “romantic” relationship with these habits, making excuses to back up the repetition of such behaviours. An example of this is lying/making excuses to help your friend out when he/she is in trouble.
As life goes on, similar problems tend to repeat itself in the courses of our lives. Due to a repetition in solutions provided for reoccurring life problems, the brain will create shortcuts to save more energy. This ties in with the unwillingness to do anything productive as due to the brain creating shortcuts, the manuscript for the solution doesn’t always fit the problem at hand which may lead to more problems.
Laziness, another major and obvious contributing factor to the making of irrational decisions. In a study conducted by a group of students from Harvard University, the results showed that people would rather do something than be left alone with their thoughts. “In 11 studies, we found that participants typically did not enjoy spending 6 to 15 minutes in a room by themselves with nothing to do but think, that they enjoyed doing mundane external activities much more, and that many preferred to administer electric shocks to themselves instead of being left alone with their thoughts.” (Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind, 2014) 57.5% of participants found it hard to concentrate while 89% found their minds to wander off even though there was nothing that could possibly be worth distracting them. For the analytically intelligent, their intelligence relies on their brains functioning quick but with intelligence comes curiosity for the unknown. Because of this, the analytically intelligent are more prone to mentally wander off; and due to laziness, they often tend to take mental shortcuts which can affect how rational their decisions actually are.
Overconfidence; a lack in emotional, creative and practical intelligence, flawed assumptions, repetition compulsion, laziness and non-existent common sense. These are factors that may cause the intelligent to make senseless decisions, causing the rest of us to shake our heads and wonder how on Earth these people are so dumb. Although this article provides reasons as to why these decisions are possibly made by the analytically intelligent, these can also be used as reasons to why any person makes an unwise decision. To avoid making rash decisions, make sure to think twice and consider the situation from more than one perspective. The next time you see a smart person make a dumb decision, don’t laugh. You’ve probably made the same mistake.
