Psychological research proves it time and again:most of us are afraid of being labeled stupid by the people around us. Yet ignorance can also have its advantages. And no, I'm not just talking about smart blondes like Britt Dekkers who, thanks to their (apparent?) ignorance, can earn tons a year. Science also shows that being a little stupid has its advantages…
How much we sometimes tend to abandon our sense of what is right or wrong under peer pressure, social psychologist Solomon Asch showed as early as the 1950s. The participants in his experiment were each given a card with a line on it. On another card they had to choose the same image. The subjects chose the correct answer with ease.
Until the other 'subjects' (in reality colleagues of Asch who were part of the 'conspiracy') suddenly all started to give the same, wrong answers. Then a large number of participants promptly chose those wrong answers. In short, they chose the group and not their minds. Moreover, a small minority became so convinced of the wrong answer that they really started to consider it the right one.
The fear of being thought stupid means we don't always allow ourselves—at least not in public—to question and investigate seemingly solid truths. We then just join in with non-truths, which we may then subconsciously make our own as well. Perhaps not so surprising, because according to 'stupidity researcher' Matthijs van Boxtel, stupidity is still a taboo:"it is not for nothing that we laugh so hard at the stupidity of others."
Because being stupid is rejected, it easily leads to the person being labeled stupid to feel a certain peer pressure to correct his opinion. Or worse, fear of being thrown out of the group if there is no response. So it's no wonder that we often just keep our mouths shut and leave our seemingly silly questions for what they are.
However, that is sometimes a pity. Because things that seem self-evident in the society in which we find ourselves, do not necessarily have to be. Cultures often have different truths. And under the influence of certain worldviews or religion, knowledge can easily become clouded.
In the 1950s, homosexuality was still regarded as a psychiatric disorder in the Netherlands, for example. And that black people had a lower IQ than white people, well there was no doubt about that at the time.
In short, it doesn't hurt to take a critical look every now and then at what seem to be 'absolute truths' in your society. Knowledge can simply be very colored, and therefore relative, because it is so culture- and time-bound.
Ignorance is bliss
Looking at new things with an open mind also fits in well with this, as history shows. After all, sometimes nice things can emerge from apparent ignorance.
Take our tea bag… According to legend, New York tea wholesaler Thomas Sullivan was initially furious that his customers did not understand that they had to remove the tea from the bag he sent them. Instead, they just put it in the water, bag and all! Which in the end turned out to be super handy…
According to some philosophers, we can only come to truly innovative insights if we first (temporarily) close ourselves off from our existing insights or (pre)judgments about something.
Ig Nobel Prize
The Ig Nobel Prizes announced earlier this month also show how close 'stupidity' and genius are. These prizes are for ideas or questions that seem too dull for words.
However, the issuers are the first to admit that what passes for nonsense today may well be important in the future. That modesty is perhaps not so surprising since much of the research that won the Ig Nobel Prize turned out to be irrelevant after all.
Fortunately, some of us are not afraid to investigate seemingly dull matters. Animal scientist from Wageningen Bert Tolkamp, for example. His research was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize last year. “At first I wanted to decline the award because I was afraid that people would see me as the prototype of the stupid scientist. But the prize gave me the opportunity to bring my research to the attention of a large audience, as well as potentially interested lenders.”
What was the research question that got Tolkamp excited? Well, he wanted to know if cows are more likely to lie down the longer they stand? That's right. Try it, neigh. That's pretty obvious, isn't it? Or uh, wait a minute, right? And because the extent to which a cow rests and then gets up again says something about its well-being, we could even describe this as a, er, relevant question.
Fortunately, Tolkamp just followed his head and had 73 dairy cows filmed for weeks. So that we now know, among other things, that the longer a cow has been lying down, the greater the chance that she will get up quickly…
In short, if you are laughed at in the future because you like to wonder things that others label as nonsense or think you already know, don't let yourself be discouraged. In fact, put on your naughty shoes and indulge in your apparently stupid question, and then investigate it. Very nice for yourself and maybe one day also for science...