Why some people seem to be proud of their ignorance?

uzalud

Sometimes I run into people that have rather strong opinions on some topic, and it turns out that they are basing them on quite shallow and biased information. They are aware that their knowledge is quite limited compared to mine, and they admit that they don't want to put in the effort needed to learn enough to level the field.

But that's not really a problem. What is bothering me is that, sometimes, that declaration of ignorance is expressed with some kind of pride.

This behaviour is noticeable on other levels too, in politics or in the sciences-humanities culture clash.

I came up with several hypotheses which might account for this:

Being opinionated on a topic you know little about is a sign of confidence and bravery. Any fool can play it safe and carefully form opinions based on solid knowledge, but it takes a real man to do it quickly and decidedly, with only partial information.
Knowing something is an identity badge. In-depth knowledge of science, or computers, or any number of other fields is a sign that you are a geek. People are proud of not being geeks, or are a proud member of some other group that does not care for that particular knowledge.
Knowledge is relative and/or unimportant. Not caring about concrete knowledge is a sign of post-modernist sophistication, or an avant-garde, non-mainstream thinking, which is something to be proud of.
Displaying pride overcompensates for shame one normally feels when forced to acknowledge one's ignorance.

Do you notice this behaviour too? What do you think causes it?

EDIT: formatting, style, grammar

But that's not really a problem. What is bothering me is that, sometimes, that declaration of ignorance is expressed with some kind of pride.

This behaviour is noticeable on other levels too, in politics or in the sciences-humanities culture clash.

I came up with several hypotheses which might account for this:

Being opinionated on a topic you know little about is a sign of confidence and bravery. Any fool can play it safe and carefully form opinions based on solid knowledge, but it takes a real man to do it quickly and decidedly, with only partial information.
Knowing something is an identity badge. In-depth knowledge of science, or computers, or any number of other fields is a sign that you are a geek. People are proud of not being geeks, or are a proud member of some other group that does not care for that particular knowledge.
Knowledge is relative and/or unimportant. Not caring about concrete knowledge is a sign of post-modernist sophistication, or an avant-garde, non-mainstream thinking, which is something to be proud of.
Displaying pride overcompensates for shame one normally feels when forced to acknowledge one's ignorance.

Do you notice this behaviour too? What do you think causes it?

EDIT: formatting, style, grammar

Knowing something is an identity badge. In-depth knowledge of science, or computers, or any number of other fields is a sign that you are a geek. People are proud of not being geeks, or are a proud member of some other group that does not care for that particular knowledge.

In Italy this phenomenon is particularly prominent. Our school system underwent a big reformation in the 20es and has since then had only minor adjustments. The mind behind this reformation was the one of Benedetto Croce. He was an idealist philosopher, and basically disregarded the sciences as merely very practical instruments for the engineers. He designed mainly our high school system, instituting, among others, the so called "Liceo Classico", where ideally the upper classes of the future were to be formed, and the "Liceo Scientifico", the school for future engineers and technicians. In the Liceo Classico, as the name says, classical studies are dominant, and math and physics are barely taught at all. Even in the Liceo Scientifico, the main subjects are still Latin and Italian literature, history and philosophy. Since then there's a sort of a general cached thought still running around: that sciences are a second class subject of the sort. You can still see many people very proud of being able to quote Dante by heart, and also very proud of not messing with those trivial "technicalities".

That actually sounds personally kinda nice. I wish I'd been coerced into seriously reading Dante and so on when I was younger, instead of learning completely false but vaguely-reasonable-sounding stuff about genetics and airplanes and Bernoulli's law.