Today we will talk about the stupidity of people from a scientific point of view. In modern life, our ability to think clearly and rationally is extremely important. We need to be able to analyze information, make quick decisions, and learn from mistakes.
However, very often we choose what interferes with our ability to think our best. In other words, there are things that make us dumb. In this article, we have collected 9 points that are causing more and more dumb people to appear.
Signs of dullness in a person
So why do people become dumb or how to become dumb?
1. Selfishness
We think we are the smartest. Perhaps this is the first and main sign of stupidity.
A study by Stanford University psychology professor Carol Dweck shows that praising people for their intelligence rather than their efforts leads to a decline in their productivity over time.
Two types of thinking can be distinguished:
- Fixed thinking;
- Growing thinking.
Fixed-minded people think that a person’s abilities and talents are immutable. If a person with a fixed mindset fails at something, he perceives it as an insult to his intellectual abilities.
Such people are very afraid of failure, they feel a threat to their wealth because failure conflicts with their identity as “one of the smartest people in the room.” They try their best to avoid situations in which there is a danger of failure.
About the stupidity of people
“The limit of stupidity is to draw an apple as it is. Draw at least a worm, tormented by love, and a dancing lobster with castanets, and let the elephants fly over the apple, and you yourself will see that the apple is superfluous here. “
Salvador Dali
On the contrary, people with a growth mindset believe that it is an effort that makes them smarter and better. If a person with this mindset fails at something, he learns from it and decides to work even harder.
In other words, it’s not how smart we are, but how hard we try.
2. Lack of vitamins
Lack of vitamins also makes us dumb and clumsy. One example is not getting enough vitamin B12.
People get vitamin B12 from milk and other animal products. If we don’t get enough of this vitamin, or our body can’t metabolize it properly, it will be difficult for us to think and reason, and we will suffer from memory problems.
B12 can also be taken in pill form. This is especially true for people on a vegan diet.
3. Sweets
How can a warm and sweet cinnamon bun affect our thinking ability? The answer is that sugar (the base of buns) makes people stupid, it impairs memory and slows down the brain.
One of the experiments with rats proves the long-known harm of sugar to everyone. In it, the rats were divided into 2 groups, one group for 6 weeks adhering to a “sweet” diet, and the other received a healthy diet.
At the beginning of the study, the rats were tested for how well they walk through the maze. After six weeks, the researchers tested the rats’ ability to follow the old route.
The rats fed the sweets slowed down, and moreover, their brains were found to shrink.
4. Gadgets
While technology has improved our lives in many ways, it can easily dull our minds.
Two examples of how technology makes us stupid are using mathematical calculators for simple calculations, and constantly using search engines to extract tons of information.
If you have a math problem to solve, what will you do? It is very likely that you pull out your smartphone, find a calculator, and voila! However, in science, there is such a concept as the “generation effect”. It indicates that we better understand and remember the answers that we generate ourselves than those that are given to us.
So the next time you need to do some math, try solving a problem in your head. Then use your smartphone to check the answer.
At the same time, research in the cognitive sciences shows that skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving can only develop in the context of factual knowledge. That is, we must store knowledge in our head, and not just know how to look for it.
About the stupidity of people
“Just think how stupid people are sometimes … Leave them in a room with six doors, and they will still bang their foreheads against the wall. And then to be indignant in this connection ”.
Stephen King, The Dark Tower.
Therefore, it is better to learn one thing, and then apply it and remember, than constantly learn a lot of useless and inapplicable information.
The abundance of various gadgets is one of the reasons why there are many stupid people in the modern world.
5. Check social. networks
Checking Instagram or email while working on a report is not a good idea.
We all know multitasking makes you stupid. But how much?
Multitasking is known to lower your IQ by 10 points. That’s more than double the 4-point drop after smoking marijuana.
This means that our mental acuity is greatly hampered when we constantly interrupt our work to check messages in contact, or when we move from task to task instead of concentrating on one thing.
In a state of lack of focus, people say stupid things, do stupid things, and ultimately their life ends in failure.
6. TV
If we prefer to watch TV when we get home from work in the evening, we simply overwhelm our minds.
The reason for this is that watching TV, like surfing and the internet, keeps our minds in a state of constant tension and disperses our thinking. These are signs of a person’s stupidity.
Unlike, for example, reading books, during which, on the contrary, attention is concentrated. The control and mental discipline that is acquired by reading a long series of pages are essential for the richness of thought.
When our mind wanders uncontrollably on TV channels, higher-order cognitive processes in the brain are weakened – our vocabulary becomes poor, critical thinking and imagination disappear.
7. Sleep late
Lack of sleep also makes us dumb because it makes learning difficult.
It is known that in order to learn something, you first need to focus on the subject of learning, and only then the brain will begin to encode the information contained in it.
First, lack of sleep weakens attention. Second, new information and pathways to it are encoded by the brain during sleep. Therefore, proper sleep is extremely important for high-quality memorization and the application of new information.
8. Lack of physical activity or meditation
When we are under stress, the kidneys secrete the hormone cortisol, and cortisol negatively affects the brain. In particular, it impairs the process of memorizing and retrieving information and can even destroy neurons in the brain.
The hippocampal region of the brain, where long-term memories are stored, is most affected by the effects of cortisol. The hippocampus shrinks with prolonged periods of acute stress.
Therefore, for the benefit of our IQ, we need to do sports, yoga, or meditation. These are great ways to relieve stress and recharge your batteries.
9. Junk food
What happens if we eat a lot of unhealthy food? We will gain weight. But how does weight gain make us dumb?
The answer is that with every extra pound, our brain shrinks. When comparing the brains of people with normal and overweight people, the following was found:
- Obese people have 8 percent less brain tissue than normal-weight people.
It should be noted that everyone has their own normal weight. There is no need to measure yourself by the standards of society.
Conclusion
To live our lives the way we want, we need our brains to function optimally.
Take another look at these 9 things that make people dumb today.
| 1. Selfishness |
| 2. Lack of vitamins |
| 3. Sweets |
| 4. Gadgets |
| 5. Check social. networks |
| 6. TV |
| 7. Sleep late |
| 8. Lack of physical activity |
| 9. Unhealthy diet |
How many of them are relevant to you?
