The Three Most Common Types of Dumb Mistakes We All Make
We are all prone to epic blunders from time to time, and knowing why they tend to occur can help you avoid them in the future. In a study published in the journal Intelligence , what we think, or the dumbest mistakes, falls into three categories.
The researchers compiled a list of stories filled with silly mistakes and then asked people to rate them on a number of factors, including who was to blame, how dire the consequences were, etc. When the researchers analyzed all the data, they found three main reasons for our silly errors:
- Failure to combine confidence and ability: This problem is best known as the Dunning-Kruger effect . Basically, this is when unskilled people think that they are better at something than they really are. As you might expect, this leads to all sorts of silly mistakes. For example, you may have always considered yourself a computer repair master. However, when you logged in to fix your mom’s sick HP laptop, you managed to erase the entire hard drive because it turns out that you are actually just good at Linux-based administrative stuff and have no idea what to do with Windows. XP.
- Lack of Attention: Most of us don’t know how to pay attention all the time, and it turns out that lack of attention often leads to our dumbest mistakes. There is no chance that this has never happened to you. Perhaps you passed out at a traffic light and stopped a person in front of you from behind, or maybe you were distracted by a cool bird and dropped your phone on the sidewalk. When we don’t pay attention, we tend to do stupid things.
- Lack of control: We all do stupid things on impulse, and when our behavior seems to be out of our control, a stupid mistake is bound to follow. At the public level, something like Weinergate is probably the best example of this, but even something as simple as losing your cool in the office when someone steals your last granola bar falls into that category.
We will always continue to make mistakes and you will never live a life without mistakes, but the above three reasons are a good starting point for identifying your own mistakes . At the very least, it’s a good reminder that we all tend to overestimate our abilities, ignore, and make stupid impulsive decisions.
What’s stupid? Representing People About Unreasonable Behavior | Intelligence The Psychology Of An Incredibly Stupid Mistake | Scientific american