Sep
14
When you ask somebody something embarrassing or something they simply want to avoid or if you point out somebody’s shortcoming, the person “portrays” ignorance, in his/her defence.
The person is trying to hold the attitude to the effect of “What’s the big deal?” or “Oh really? I never knew/noticed!” or “Who cares?”
The outcome of their reaction:
- You can’t really press the topic further(after all its not a big deal to talk about) and if it doesn’t strike this to you as a case of POIAD, then you are just hanging there wondering “wasn’t I correct?” or “After all it was for his/her good, why doesn’t he/she understand?”.
- At the same time the person who has indulged in POIAD feels that he/she has won the argument by silencing you.
The truth behind POIAD:
- You can actually rejoice that the person has indirectly admitted that your point was right.
- He/she is really uncomfortable talking about the subject.
- Be sympathetic(if you can) and try to understand that its not fun criticizing somebody(even your friends) and “imposing” solutions (suggesting is different from imposing solutions).
- You understand their fallacy and you have nothing to lose, hence let the other person save his face.
Words of Caution about POAID:
- Don’t apply POAID unless you fully understand it.
- Even if you understand POAID it is not really applicable in all circumstances.
- Use your intelligence while making decisions unless you want to practice POAID yourself.
- POIAD is patented in my research papers so don’t bother publishing it as a piece of your genius creation.
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2 Responses to “Human Traits: Portrayal Of Ignorance As Defense (POIAD)”
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WTF… Are you serious you thought of this…I dont believe you ? You need to understand that if someone is avoiding a topic it may mean it is too personal to them to discuss it with you…
It may also mean that their behaviour has a latant reason which is rational and you fail to notice it because you dont understand a person too well(even if you’ve known a friend for decades you may still not know him too well, every human has a side to her that she only keeps to herself and unless you are a super-psychologist you wont understand it. And it is evil to rejoice that you’ve unearthed a fallacy in someone and that is one evident fallacy of yours(i dont know you personally but I can tell you spend a lot of time analysing ppl and invariably DISCOVER their shortcdomings which gives you pleasure and you try to justify that pleasure by theories like this)
Not to mean that you are a bad person,the construct that you watch ppl indicates that you have a very sensitive side to you and are humane.
But if you rather labor to search for the qualities that people have, you’ll soak yourself in so much energy that …..(i’ve got to stop here)
To begin with, thank you for your time. You actually read this and gave me your feedback.
I am serious I thought of this ;).
I propose this theory simply because I have been cut off in a conversation when I positively knew I had a valid point, which at least deserved a discussion.
I agree with the latent reasoning bit and hence I have already mentioned in “Words of Caution”, 2nd point… “It is not really applicable in all situations.” You have rightly cited an example of such a situation.
A misinterpretation(I shall be more clear from now on):
I intend to rejoice in the fact that the person has accepted that I had a valid point. I don’t intend to rejoice in somebody’s fallacy.
I dont sit and search for human traits, I simply jotted down my experience and observations.
We agree on this:
POIAD exists. I am human :).
We disagree on:
How one should feel when he has received the POIAD reaction for initiating a topic.