# Why is it so common to assume that other people are idiots? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 12, 2013, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-common-to-assume-that-other-people-are-idiots/646973 "2013-01-12T17:05:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-common-to-assume-that-other-people-are-idiots/646973/41 "2013-01-14T13:42:48Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > I subscribe to the Grocery Shopping Cart Driver theory of selfishness and (in)competence. In numerous direct observations and planned (on my part) interactions, most grocery cart drivers are selfish, clueless and just plain idiots. No matter how empty or full a grocery aisle may be, they think they are the only ones in it, display aggressive and territorial behaviors, and too stupid to make a selection and move on. I’ve tested this theory in the same grocery store chain for years, including different stores in different socio-economic areas, all with the same results. I’ve since expanded it to include department stores such as JC Penney, Target, Macys, Sears, etc. The results remain the same. > > The lone exception is Walmart. Excessive idiocy across the spectrum, including Walmart staff. Every time. Still working determine why Walmart is such a haven for extreme stupidity outside of the standard deviation. \ My husband and I have discussed this topic - we were able to learn that when shopping at Safeway or Walmart, there are always other people there, and if we block an aisle, someone will almost always come along and need to get by, so it makes sense to move our cart over to the side and not block the aisle in the first place. Other people have had the same experiences that we have, but they don’t learn, and they don’t adjust their behaviour. That makes me think that they are not smart enough to learn from their experiences. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-common-to-assume-that-other-people-are-idiots/646973/42 "2013-01-14T13:48:49Z")
I just leave my cart at the end of the aisle and walk up and down, getting my things. At the HEB we go to, this is rather simple and non-obtrusive. I only have to move the thing 4-5 times. Of course, I’m sure there are people who are ready to jump my ass for… whatever… insult this causes. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-common-to-assume-that-other-people-are-idiots/646973/43 "2013-01-14T13:49:16Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > My husband and I have discussed this topic - we were able to learn that when shopping at Safeway or Walmart, there are always other people there, and if we block an aisle, someone will almost always come along and need to get by, so it makes sense to move our cart over to the side and not block the aisle in the first place. Other people have had the same experiences that we have, but they don’t learn, and they don’t adjust their behaviour. That makes me think that they are not smart enough to learn from their experiences. No, they just don’t care, in a hurry, don’t want to be there in the first place, etc. I have personally noticed that grocery shopping makes me extremely uncomfortable, and I just want to GTFO of there, so I tend to rush and forget common courtesy and manners as a result. Especially if I have two impatient preschoolers with me. So sorry to anyone I may have pissed off in the grocery store, I don’t like it anymore than you do. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-common-to-assume-that-other-people-are-idiots/646973/44 "2013-01-14T15:22:22Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > I think some people also measure too often by their own yardstick. It’s common enough to hear a group of specialists-- let’s say engineers or programmers-- complain about how stupendously stupid managers are. Dilbert is pretty much made of this. In reality, bosses don’t need to know much about the technical side of the business and are, in fact, playing an different game than the specialists are. In all fairness, “management” often is stupendously stupid. Really a better question is why so many seemingly intelligent and educated people still appear to make idiotic decisions. IMHO it is arrogance combined with the fact that “intelligent” does not mean “competency”. Management is a good example. In the business world, we often promote people based on success in a particular area. The skills in being a successful engineer or programmer, however, don’t translate to managing a team of engineers or programmers. And it is difficult to effectively manage engineers or programmers unless you know something about engineering and programming. In other positions, intelligence is but one skill needed for success and might not even be the most critical one. A salesman doesn’t need to be a hired brain, but they do need to be affable, tenacious and goal oriented. A highly intelligent person might be incompetent in that role if they constantly overanalyze everything instead of simply cold-calling prospects. So really what we consider people being “idiots” is often incompetence due to a mismatch of their roles and their abilities. Who is the bigger “idiot”? A Walmart clerk who efficiently rings up customers and handles every transaction with a calm and friendly (but not annoyingly so) demeanor? Or a Harvard MBA vice president who constantly directs his engineering teams to perform tasks that don’t make any sense because he doesn’t really have a context for what they do? ---
**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-common-to-assume-that-other-people-are-idiots/646973/45 "2013-01-14T16:16:23Z")
> [@Red\_Wiggler](#): > > Voicing the opinion that other people are idiots does not reflect favorably on one. Even if it’s true, it triggers a negative reaction in me towards the person who said it. That probably isn’t logical at all but I don’t think I care. Which might make me one of the idiots. It seems perfectly logical to me. For one thing, I think “intelligence” is overrated. To hear people talk, one would think that it is the absolute most important aspect of a person, which seems ridiculous to me. A person who is of average intelligence, but is exceptionally kind is someone I will choose to spend time with instead of someone who is a genius, but an asshole. Dismissing most of humanity as “idiots” is unnecessary and unkind. The idea that it’s appropriate to view someone who is less intelligent with scorn and derision is nasty and mean. No one sets off to be an idiot, and I suppose being a misanthrope is similarly not a conscious choice. If you think “people are stupid,” I guess it sucks to be you. Try to actively seek to observe positive qualities in the “idiots” that surround you and the world might seem a bit better. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-common-to-assume-that-other-people-are-idiots/646973/46 "2013-01-14T17:00:34Z")
I have to assume most other people are idiots in order to maintain my own over-inflated sense of self worth. The alternative is that everyone else is smarter than me and I can’t live with the idea that I’m walking around make poor decisions all the time. Fortunately, in any public place there is sure to be one or two people who act differently from how I would act in the same circumstance so I just concentrate on those idiots. Everybody else is normal and invisible. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-common-to-assume-that-other-people-are-idiots/646973/47 "2013-01-14T17:52:21Z")
Eh. I consider myself smart, but I can’t be enough of an outlier to account for the differences I see. A certain percentage of the people I talk to on a wide variety of topics appear to have little to no knowledge of, or awareness of, _almost every item that comes up_. Even stuff I would consider a mundane part of living, let alone stuff a mild curiosity about the world would lead one to learn. Even stuff in which they claim to be interested. Worse, stuff that these people have previously learned, and talked about with me, they appear to have no memory of. Aside from repeating catchphrases and buzzwords, they don’t appear to say much at all. You and I can, and probably do, differ on what that percentage is…but those people are out there. Plus, I’ve seen them drive. _shudder_ ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-common-to-assume-that-other-people-are-idiots/646973/48 "2013-01-14T18:38:45Z")
> [@Noel\_Prosequi](#): > > You’re describing the Fundamental Attribution Error. We tend to attribute the behaviour of others to dispositional characteristics (he cut me off because he is a tool) whereas we attribute and excuse our own behaviour according to situational causes (I cut him off because I was running late, distracted by the kids, etc.) Google it; I can’t do a link from here. I was going to make some crack about how you’d know how to do a link if you weren’t an idiot, but there are probably things you know how to do that I don’t, too. (The icon for it is the globe and infinity sign under the smiley face) Or maybe you’re posting from your phone, and the interface is different from what you’re used to there. We all do dumb things sometimes. But when you or someone you know well does a dumb thing, you know that’s an aberration, because you know that person has done other non-dumb things in their life. When someone you don’t know and will probably never see again does a dumb thing, you don’t know about all the non-dumb things they’ve done. The person who cut you off in traffic could be a brilliant theoretical physicist (I know an astrophysicist who is brilliant but is a terrible driver, once got two speeding tickets in one week), but you generally have no way of knowing that. If your only encounter with the guy I mentioned in my aside (no, I’m not going to tell you who it is) were seeing him drive, you’d probably say he was an idiot. His professional record says otherwise, though I don’t understand why he chooses to drive the way he does. You notice people who are acting like idiots because their behavior is unusual, and it often inconveniences you. You’re more likely to notice things that are out of the ordinary and things that inconvenience you than you are to notice people behaving normally and not affecting you. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-common-to-assume-that-other-people-are-idiots/646973/49 "2013-01-14T21:24:55Z")
> [@Noel\_Prosequi](#): > > You’re describing the Fundamental Attribution Error. We tend to attribute the behaviour of others to dispositional characteristics (he cut me off because he is a tool) whereas we attribute and excuse our own behaviour according to situational causes (I cut him off because I was running late, distracted by the kids, etc.) Google it; I can’t do a link from here. I’ve heard that we judge ourselves by our intentions and judge others by their actions, because we have no direct way to perceive their intentions. That seems to be similar to the Fundamental Attribution Error, but just a little bit different. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-common-to-assume-that-other-people-are-idiots/646973.md?page=2)