How could I be so stupid? Intelligent individuals, by virtue of being smart, often think that they cannot behave stupidly, but that is precisely what leads them down the garden path to behaving in just such a manner

HOW MANY TIMES have you said to yourself, "How could I be so stupid?" Chances are, you really meant it, at least at the time. Why do smart people act stupidly? What, if anything, can they do about it?

If it is any consolation, some of the most powerful people in the world have lived to rue their own stupidity. In my lifetime, one president (Richard Nixon) had to resign to escape impeachment, while another (Bill Clinton) did face impeachment proceedings because he simply shrugged off the public disgrace of an affair with an intern. Andrew Fastow, former chief financial officer of Enron and a graduate of the university where I teach (Tufts), is in prison. Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, former chief executive officers at Enron and convicted for being instrumental in its bankruptcy, were well educated. Lay has a doctorate in economics from the University of Houston; Skilling, an MBA from Harvard University. Clearly, being smart and well educated is no protection from stupidity. What do all of these people have in common?

First, we must distinguish stupidity, as the word is commonly used, from lack of intelligence, as measured by conventional tests and level of education. One would not say of any of these people that they are unintelligent. Yet, one might reasonably put forth that, on certain occasions, they behaved stupidly. Here, one is distinguishing between a long-term trait (intelligence) and a short-term state (acting stupidly). Unfortunately for certain individuals, that short-term state can begin to drag itself out over time. People who are unintelligent do not perform well in many tasks because they cannot. People who act stupidly do not perform well, but could if they wished to. That is, Nixon, Clinton, Fastow, Lay, and Skilling all had a choice. They chose to behave in stupid ways. They were smart, but did not show it in their actions.

When people act stupidly, there generally are two types of reasons for doing so. One is an error of omission, the other, of commission. Errors of omission typically are due to mindlessness. This term, popularized by Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer, refers to our behaving in ways that show a lack of critical thinking. Here are a couple of examples from Langer's work.

In one study, a confederate of Langer's asked someone using a copy machine if she could interrupt. The request was made under either of two conditions. In one condition, the confederate simply asked to use the machine. In the other, the confederate asked to use the machine because, she said, she needed to make copies. Note that the reason given is totally uninformative. Why else would she use a copy machine except to make copies'? Yet, the user of the machine was more likely to let the confederate interrupt her if she was given this reason, despite its being totally lacking in relevant content.

A second example comes from Langer's own personal experience. Langer went to make a purchase with a credit card. As you know, people sign credit cards on the back to prevent fraud. By signing the cards, we allow cashiers to check our signature on the card against the signature we write on the bill. A vendor noticed that Langer's card was unsigned and refused to allow her to make a purchase with it. Langer then signed the card in the presence of the vendor, who then allowed her to make the purchase, because now she could check the signature on the card against the signature on the bill. However, Langer had just signed the card in the vendor's presence, so of course the signatures were matches!

Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert has proposed an interesting explanation for why we commit these errors. He argues that, when people see or read something, they do not discern immediately whether it is true or false. Rather, individuals initially believe what they see or hear to be tree. It takes an extra mental process to verify whether the information is true or false, or makes sense or does not make sense. Many times, we are intellectually lazy, and do not take this extra step. For this reason, we often are fooled into behaving mindlessly.

We are barraged continually by advertisements making outrageous claims for products. The advertisements may come through print media, television, radio, or the Internet. Scarcely a day goes by when I do not receive multiple Internet advertisements assuring me of drastic increases in my sexual performance if I buy the advertiser's product. The claims are outrageous, and it does not take a lot of reflection upon them to realize that they are exceedingly unlikely to be true. However, people often wish to believe that they can enhance their sexual performance, or that they can cure their ills, or that they can look as young as they did 20 years ago, so they buy the products. They fail to take the extra step of critical thinking.

In my own work on how smart people can be stupid, started at Yale University and now continuing at Tufts, I have argued that smart people are, in some respects, more susceptible to act stupidly than are others who are not so smart. The reason is that, by virtue of being smart, they often think that they cannot behave stupidly--and that is precisely what leads them down the garden path to behaving in just such a manner. When I have analyzed smart people who behave stupidly, they almost al ways have committed one or more of several errors of commission.