What do you classify as "naive"? (person, definition, friendship)

[stava]

Curious to hear what type of behavior or mindset you would classify as "naive", either in friendships, relationships, or in life in general. For example, are you of the opinion that people who trust anyone in today's world are naive, or do you have a more lenient definition of naivety?

[MinivanDriver]

Someone who lives in a bubble, living by the theory of how people should act versus how they do act.

[stava]

Originally Posted by MinivanDriver

Someone who lives in a bubble, living by the theory of how people should act versus how they do act.

After seeing how people do act, would you say it's naive to believe that those people could have a better nature, that they can change?

[Cida]

I think people should stop using the word "trust" in situations like this. We often "trust" people for one thing, but not another. For instance, there's someone who I'd trust with may wallet, but not to make medical decisions for me. There's someone I trust to keep a secret, but not to arrive on time. You might trust someone with your bank password, but not with the care of your child.

And I'm not sure that trust should be equated with naivete.

[Chowhound]

Being naïve to me is really more of an age based thing. I mean that in the sense that young people are more unknowledgeable about certain facets of life and haven't been as exposed as much to things where you learn basic life lessons. Lacking the bigger picture of understanding or seeing things. That could be called naïve, that in of itself isn't a bad thing, it just is.

Grown ups that are clueless about life and how the world works, social interactions, basic human motivators, erroneously judging people's behaviors versus what they say. Not being able to tell when someone is BS'ing you.

Things along those lines are what I would classify as being naïve.

[BobCaldwell]

Folks who literally think every single person they meet is their friend or has their best interests at heart.

I refer to people with this mindset as being 'Disney-fied'.

[silibran]

Originally Posted by stava

Curious to hear what type of behavior or mindset you would classify as "naive", either in friendships, relationships, or in life in general. For example, are you of the opinion that people who trust anyone in today's world are naive, or do you have a more lenient definition of naivety?

A naive person takes everything someone says at face value, and has a hard time imagining than anyone would be insincere. A naive person might have less exposure to insincerity, and therefore cannot discern it.

Naivete is the opposite of cynical, I think. Or perhaps it is the opposite of wisdom.

[Nov3]

When the expectations are out of alignment for a standard or norm currently exhibited in that habitat or community.

A naive person thinks it's raining, a wise person says, you may want to aim at the urinal not my leg.

[DubbleT]

I used to be very naive. I knew that sometimes people stole things, I just never realized some of them did it purely for fun.

[Calvert Hall '62]

My first thought to the OP was that no mentally-competent adult in today's world is naïve, but then saw a show about all the seemingly-intelligent, level-headed, unsheltered people who have given away their wealth in harebrained investment schemes.


Or maybe greed is a drug that numbs judgment.