Dunning-Kruger effect; the less we know, the smarter we believe
Do you think you are good at estimating your own abilities and knowledge? We do not know you, but there is an investigation that makes us think that no, you are not very good at it.
The Dunning-Kruger effect: the less we know, the smarter we think we are
The Dunning-Kruger effect It teaches us that people with less skills, abilities and knowledge tend to overestimate the skills and knowledge they really have, and vice versa. Thus, the most capable and competent are underestimated. How is this strange phenomenon explained?
The inept criminal who tried to be invisible with lemon juice
In the mid-1990s, a tough 44-year-old inhabitant of Pittsburgh, he robbed two banks of his city in broad daylight, without any attire or mask to cover his face. His criminal adventure ended within a few hours of committing both robberies, during his misdeed.
When arrested, McArthur Wheeler confessed that lemon juice had been applied to his face, trusting that the juice would make him appear invisible to the cameras . "I do not understand, I used the lemon juice," he snapped between sobs at the time of his police arrest.
Later it was learned that the unprecedented idea of juice was a suggestion that two friends of Wheeler explained days before the robbery. Wheeler tried the idea by applying juice to his face and taking a picture to make sure of the effectiveness. In the photograph his face did not appear, probably because the frame of it was somewhat clumsy and ended up focusing on the ceiling of the room instead of his face covered in lemon juice. Without noticing it, Wheeler took it for granted that he would remain invisible during the robbery.
Months later, the professor of social psychology at Cornell University, David Dunning, could not believe the story of the intrepid Wheeler and the lemon juice. Intrigued by the case, especially by the incompetence exhibited by the frustrated thief, he proposed to carry out an investigation with a previous hypothesis: Could it be possible that my own incompetence I became unconscious of that same incompetence?
A somewhat contrived hypothesis, but that made a lot of sense. To carry out the study that elucidated if the hypothesis was true, Dunning chose a brilliant pupil, Justin Kruger, with the aim of finding data that confirmed or refuted the idea. What they found left them even more surprised.
The investigation
A total of four different investigations were carried out, taking as sample the students of the Faculty of Psychology of the Cornell University. The competence of the subjects in the fields of education was mainly studied grammar , the logic reasoning Y the humor (which can be defined as the ability to detect that funny).
The study participants were asked, one by one, about how they estimated their degree of competence in each of the named fields. Subsequently, they were asked to answer a written test to check their real competition in each of the areas.
All the data were collected and the results were compared, to observe whether any sense of correlation was found. As you can imagine, very relevant correlations were found.
The researchers realized that the greater the incompetence of the subject, the less conscious he was of her . On the other hand, the most competent and trained subjects were those who, paradoxically, tended to underestimate their competence.
Dunning and Kruger made public the results and conclusions of their interesting study. You can check the original paper here:
"Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments" (translation: "People without skills and unconscious about it: how difficulties in detecting our own incompetence lead us to overestimate our self-image ").Conclusions about the Dunning-Kruger study
The results thrown by the paper can be summarized in a series of conclusions. We can assume that, for certain competence or regarding a certain area of knowledge, incompetent people:
- They are unable to recognize their own incompetence.
- They tend not to recognize the competence of other people.
- They are not able to become aware of how incompetent they are in an area.
- If they are trained to increase their competence, they will be able to recognize and accept their previous incompetence.
More ignorant, more perceived intelligence
Consequently, the individual who boasts of knowing how to sing like an angel but his "concerts" are always deserted, is a clear sign of the Dunning-Kruger effect.We can also observe this phenomenon when the experts in some subject offer opinions and deliberate and calm considerations about a problem, while the ignorant people in the matter believe to have absolute and simple answers to the same questions .
Do you know any medical professional? Surely you can tell how it feels when a patient decides to take a medication not prescribed by the doctor, based on the mistaken idea that as a patient "you already know what is good and what is not." Self-medication, in this case, is another clear example of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Why does this phenomenon happen?
As pointed out by Dunning and Kruger, this unreal perception it is because the skills and competences needed to do something right are, precisely, the skills required to be able to accurately estimate one's performance in the task.
Let's give some examples. In the event that my spelling is exceptionally bad, my knowledge necessary to detect that my level in terms of spelling is very low and thus be able to correct my performance is, precisely, know the rules of spelling. Only knowing the rules in writing I am able to become aware of my incompetence, or in the case that a third person makes me fall into account, warning me of the spelling mistakes I have made when writing a text. Detecting my lack of skills in this area will not correct my gaps in this regard automatically; I will only be aware that my skills require more attention. The same goes for any other field of knowledge.
As for the people who underestimate their abilities and competences, we could say that this occurs due to the effect of false consensus : tend to think that "everyone does the same", assuming that their skills are within average. However, in reality his abilities are clearly superior.
Reflecting about the Dunning-Kruger effect
If we can learn anything from the Dunning-Kruger effect, we should not pay much attention when someone tells us that they are "very good" in something, or that they "know a lot" about this or that. It will depend on how that person estimates their own capabilities that may be wrong in one way or another: either because it is overestimated, or because it underestimates your abilities
At the time of finding and hiring a person who is dedicated to a complex area on which we do not have many notions (a computer scientist, an architect, a tax advisor ...) we lack the knowledge necessary to assess their level of competence in The matter. That is why it is so valuable to consult the opinion of former clients or friends who know that specific area.
The curious thing about this psychological effect is that, in addition, incompetent people "not only come to wrong conclusions and make bad decisions, but their incompetence does not allow them to become aware of it," say Dunning and Kruger.
From this reflection emerges another equal or more important. Sometimes, the responsibility for the failures we experience throughout life is not due to the rest of the people or to bad luck, but to oneself and their decisions . For this we should carry out an exercise of self appraisal when we come across one of these obstacles in a project or work in which we are immersed.
Absolutely no one is an expert in all disciplines of knowledge and areas of life; We all have shortcomings and we ignore many things . Each person has some potential for improvement at any point in their life stage: the mistake is to forget this point.
