Why do people do such stupid things on vacation?

ANALYSIS: When the Covid pandemic took hold of her in March, Brady Sluder from Ohio went to Miami for spring break, despite urgent calls for people to stay home and socialize away.

Interviewed by CBS News, Sluder’s arrogant justification for his trip went viral: “If I get a crown, I get a crown. At the end of the day, I’m not going to let that stop me from partying. […] About two months we have had this trip planned. “

A week later, now an international “celebrity” for all the wrong reasons, he was forced to issue a humiliating apology.

If you think Sluder’s party was stupid, we share your feelings.

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With the holiday season upon us, as the pandemic continues, we can only hope that the covidiots will listen to the rules. Since many of us are also going on summer vacations, now is also a good time to reflect on the stupidity in tourism.

We may be tempted to think that a stupid person has certain demographic or psychological characteristics. However, anyone can behave stupidly, especially in unfamiliar settings, such as holidays, where it is difficult to judge the correct course of action.

The laws of human stupidity

In our recently published magazine article on stupidity in tourism, we see stupidity as action without sound knowledge or judgment. This results in loss or damage to the perpetrator and others.

In a holiday context, it can negatively affect the tourists themselves, as well as other people, animals, organizations or destinations.

In 1976, the Italian economist Carlo Cipolla published a definitive essay entitled The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. Although we prefer to focus on stupid behavior rather than stupid people, we agree with its five laws:

1. Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.

2. The probability that a certain person (is) stupid is independent of any other characteristics of that person.

3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or a group of people while he himself does not make a profit and possibly even incurs losses.

4. People who are not stupid always underestimate the damaging power of stupid people. In particular, non-stupid people constantly forget to deal with or associate with stupid people always and everywhere it turns out to be a costly mistake.

5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.

Why is stupid behavior so dangerous? Because it is irrational and, therefore, the result is unpredictable.

Who could have thought that so many people would die from taking a selfie that they can now purchase insurance on the spot? Or that the passengers on the plane would throw coins into the engines for good luck?

What Causes Stupidity?

How can we better understand our own stupid behavior or recognize it in others? Stupidity is generally caused by an excess of one or more of the following factors:

• the person who thinks he knows everything
• the person who thinks he can do anything
• the person is extremely self-centered
• the person who believes that nothing will hurt him
• the person’s emotions (for example, fear or anger)
• the person’s state (for example, exhausted or drunk).

Why stupid behavior is more likely on vacation

Tourists can be affected by all of these factors.

Leisure tourism, by its nature, is a very self-centered and enjoyable activity. People often travel to relax and have fun.

In the quest to try something new or escape their daily routine, people may go to places with cultures or practices that are very different from their own, or try things they would not normally do, such as adventure activities.

As a result, people can act differently on vacation.

There also seem to be fewer social constraints. Tourists may not follow social rules and norms while traveling, because family, friends, colleagues, and bosses are less likely to find out.

Of course, tourists may also not know the commonly accepted rules about where they travel.

All of the above increases the likelihood of stupidity. And you certainly don’t have to travel abroad to be stupid.

One such example is a tourist who snuck into Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, which was closed in August due to Covid concerns in the local indigenous community. The woman injured her ankle and had to be rescued.

The importance of thinking first

So what to do with the stupid behavior of tourists?

Strict regulation, physical barriers, warning signs, and other punitive measures alone may not work. This is seen in the case of a man who jumped a zoo fence in 2017 to avoid the entrance fee. He ended up being mutilated to death by a tiger.

Educating tourists on how to behave while traveling has some effect. But more importantly, tourists must be self-aware. They need to consider what is likely to happen as a result of their behavior, how likely things are to go wrong, and if they would at home.

While stupidity is impossible to eliminate, it can be less prevalent and cause much less harm if we take the time to reflect on our behavior and attitudes.

So have fun on vacation… but don’t be stupid!

Denis Tolkach is Senior Lecturer at James Cook University and Stephen Pratt is a professor at The University of the South Pacific.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.