The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
A tremendous essay by Italian economic historian Carlo M. Cipolla
In 1976 Carlo M. Cipolla - a famous Italian economic historian - published the essay “The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity” in a numbered and private edition1.
In the essay - as you might have guessed from the title - the author explores the controversial subject of stupidity, stating five laws of human stupidity.
The goal of the essay is to “possibly neutralize one of the most powerful dark forces that hinder the growth of human welfare and happiness.”
Stupidity, appunto.
I first heard about Professor Cipolla during my university years. My History of Economics professor told us about Cipolla and his books, highly praising his style.
Only later did I find out that the “M.” in his name was an invention, Carlo M. Cipolla’s invention. Yet, many people - including my professor - were wrongly calling him “Carlo Maria Cipolla”.
I guess Cipolla only wanted to prove one of the laws.
The Laws of Human Stupidity
Law #1 - Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
Any numerical estimate of the percentage of stupid individuals would be an underestimate. No matter how high one’s estimates of human stupidity may be, reality will always surpass them.
We will always be surprised by the fact that people whom we once judged to be rational and intelligent turn out to be “unashamedly stupid”.
Law #2 - The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
Stupidity is an indiscriminate privilege of all human groups and is uniformly distributed according to a constant proportion.
The frequency of stupidity is constant in all groups of people, like blue-collar workers, white-collar employees, students, administrators, professors, and Nobel laureates.
The Third (and Golden) Basic Law
Law #3 - A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
This law assumes that human beings fall into four basic categories:
the helpless
the intelligent
the bandit
the stupid
While we can recall cases in which a person has been helpless (i.e. took an action resulting in his loss and our gain), intelligent (i.e. took an action by which both parties gained), or a bandit (i.e. took an action that resulted in his gain and in our loss), these are not frequent in our daily life.
The most frequent cases are those in which we lose money, time, energy, health, appetite, and/or cheerfulness because of the stupid actions of a stupid person, who has nothing to gain from our losses2.
Why does he/she do that?
The person in question is stupid.
Law #4 - Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people infallibly turns out to be a costly mistake.
Helpless, intelligent and bandits often fail to recognize stupidity.
A stupid person shows erratic and irrational behavior, making their actions and reactions unpredictable.
Law #5 - A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person. A stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit.
Why?
“The results of the action of a perfect bandit is purely a transfer of wealth and/or welfare. After the action of a perfect bandit, the bandit has a plus on his account that is exactly equivalent to the minus he has caused to another person. The society as a whole is neither better nor worse off.”
On the contrary, stupid people cause losses to other people with no corresponding gains for themselves.
Essentially, society as a whole is impoverished.
See you all next Sunday 🗓️ and beware of stupid.
Thanks,
Giacomo
The essay was later published in 1988 and became a best seller. If you’re curious, you can read it here.
Stupid people can not only damage one person, but also entire communities or societies. How and why stupid people can reach positions of power? Cipolla says it was because of class, caste and religion in the past. Today it’s because political parties, bureaucracy and democracy.
Don’t forget Law #6: not a single person reading this is a stupid person (if you ask them)
Fascinating read. When you think back in your daily interactions you see examples of this everywhere.