Do you think the average person is rather smart or rather dumb?

[noname223]

The smartest answer might be neither: he or she is simply average.

But I think this is too easy.

I think about this question when I listen to political news. Do people actually get when they are lied to and manipulated? I think there is massive manipulation in politics. And all sides do that but on different scales and different magnitude.

I think it is always relatively speaking. The average person of today is way smarter and more knowledgable that the average person two centuries ago.

A different aspect is: it depends on the issue. And I think the media plays a massive role. And the education system. In Germany many say we focus way too much on humanistic learning and should focus more on STEM subjects (fun fact in German we use the abbreviation MINT). It is more important for the economy.

If there is research on voters one can conclude that many don't know the exact policies of the people they vote for. But maybe this is not a sign of stupidity rather a less rational approach to politics. Going with the vibes instead.

I think there is no clear answer. On suicide many are ill informed from my experience. Many people don't know how to respond. Many have a black white thinking of this compley issue. But maybe this is a lack of empathy. Lack of emotional intelligence (?)

What do you think?

 

[darkest]

I feel like the average person is rather ignorant than "smart or dumb".

 

[kenma0]

depends on a lot of things i guess. location, for one. access to education, access to knowledge. the ability to read and write, and theres also street smarts. emotional intelligence is also huge like you said.

i almost want to say emotionally intelligent people are the smartest people. being able to understand all kinds of perspectives and speak on them with respect and not out of ignorance, can get you very very far. socially smart people can befriend and enrich all kinds of people's lives.

people who are typical "smart because high IQ" but then have extremely poor social skills, might find themselves being avoided by others, because social interaction isnt where they are smart. and thats ok! people with book smarts still have their role to play and contribute to the world in positive ways.

also no one is immune to propaganda, or mass media manipulation. we are always influenced by everything. someone who is influenced by too much joe rogan is not as "smart" as someone who is influenced by too much CNN, even if they think they are.

 

[FinalVoid25]

The average person is definetely not acting like I would expect of humanity, the "pinnacle of creation". I am very dissapointed in how little humans actually accomplished so far. All the technology is useless if we treat each other like shit.

 

[evq]

You're either smart or dumb. There's no in between.

 

[darkshadownice]

The average person is average. You can meet some really smart people in life, and you can meet some really dumb shits also. If anything, the average person shares a commonality with the smart ones and the dumb ones: the average person is selfish.

 

[H.O.Xan]

Interesting post. I think the average person has mid range IQ. Ofc, there r various ways to measure intelligence. I've definitely been on the stupid end of decision making at times due to cracking under emotional pressure, etc. But IQ matters, especially in the way of how my life was constructed. EQ is just for getting by. Here, I can practice increasing my EQ quite a bit. But, I put high emphasis on being smart to weave thru adversity

 

[Manfrotto99]

Interesting question. Certainly each generation learns from the past so the population should be getting more knowledgable and smarter and in many ways it is. However in other ways it appears to be getting dumber and as a whole I think we are not advancing but recceeding back into apes, who often appear to act smarter than a lot of uncivilised human beings.

I think the average person is just average but I think they are ignorant and I think they choose to be that way and go along with the masses because "Ignorance is bliss" and life is easier that way. Does that make a person smart or dumb? Maybe it depends on how you look at it. At an individual level it proberberly is smart, but not so on a collective level. People are intrinsically selfish and that does not change whether they are smart or dumb. Infact knowledge in the hands of selfish human beings can be very dangerous and destructive.