The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability. It is related to the cognitive bias of illusory superiority and comes from the inability of people to recognize their lack of ability. People experiencing this bias are said to be ‘on Mount Stupid’, according to social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger.
About Dunning–Kruger effect in brief
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability. It is related to the cognitive bias of illusory superiority and comes from the inability of people to recognize their lack of ability. Without the self-awareness of metacognition, people cannot objectively evaluate their competence or incompetence. The bias results from an internal illusion in people of low ability and from an external misperception in people who are of high ability. People experiencing this bias are said to be ‘on Mount Stupid’, according to social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger. Dunning wrote about his observations that people with substantial, measurable deficits in their knowledge or expertise lack the ability to recognize those deficits and, therefore, think they are performing competently when they are not. Incompetent students improved their ability to estimate their class rank correctly after receiving minimal tutoring in the skills they lacked, regardless of any objective improvement in the said skills of perception. The study also indicates that training in a task, such as solving a logic puzzle, increases people’s ability to accurately evaluate how good they are at it. The research indicated that the study participants who scored in the bottom quartile on tests of their sense of humor, knowledge of grammar, and logical reasoning, overestimated their test performance and their abilities.
Despite test scores that placed them in the 12th percentile, the participants estimated they ranked in the 62nd percentile. The participants’ knowledge of geography was tested to affect the participants’ self-view of themselves when it was intended to affect it negatively and some were asked to rate some external cues negatively. The results indicated a shift in participants’ view of themselves that was not intended to negatively affect the subjects’ views of themselves. The findings were published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in May 2014, and are available on the website of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) at www.uCLA.edu/psychology/Psychology-Psychology/Philosophy-Philosophical-Psychological-Psychiatry-Psychotherapy-Physics-Psychologist-Psychologists-Psychopathy-Psychopathology-Phsychology-Philosis-Psychotherapies-Psychopharmacology-Psi-Psychophysiology-Psychologically-Psychiatric-Psychobiological-Behavior-Psychography-Psycho-Psychotronic-Psychosocial-Behaviour-Psychobabble-Psycholopathy-Phobias-Psychotic-Psychopathic-Psychobia-Psychophobia-Psychohistory-Psychosis-Phobia-Phobic-Psychobe-Phobe-Psychoproblems-Psychoanalysts.
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