Behavior 10: The Trusting Fool

 This type of behavior usually manifests when a person turns to a friend in seeking relationship advice.  The Trusting Fool discusses the situation and talks about her feelings and fears.  The "friend" listens, but already has a judgment about the situation because she is biased.  At the end of the exposition, the friend provides some insight and comes to a rigid conclusion.   In a moment of trust and pure stupidity, the Trusting Fool actually becomes convinced of the friend's insight without questioning it.  In essence, they adopt the position and conclusion of the friend without any critical thinking or further study.  This is just plain stupid.


First, every single person is subjective and biased.  There is no such thing as an objective friend.  They can be more objective than you, but they are not fool proof.  Second, everyone needs to make up their own mind.  A good friend is there to explore various options and, perhaps, raise points that you had not considered.  They are not there to substitute our judgment for theirs or live our lives for us.  Therefore, a friend's advice should be nothing more than a helping hand in arriving to a conclusion we, as a thoughtful individual, have reached and with which we are comfortable.

I have found one of the main reasons people indulge in this passive type of behavior is accountability.  People tend to not like assuming the consequences of their choices, especially when they are poor choices that lead to unfortunate consequences.  This type of behavior is very prominent  with girls and dating, where the girl asks her friends or siblings for advice and then simply goes with what her friends say.  If the consequences end up being good, she takes full credit for the decision, if it doesn't, she blames the friends for their poor judgment.   

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