Dunning-Kruger Effects

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive imbalance that causes less competent people to overestimate their abilities and more competent people to underestimate theirs. We have all experienced or witnessed this at some point in our lives. When ignorant people think they know everything, or particularly intelligent people think they are ignorant, then the Dunning-Kruger effect is at stake.

People who suffer from this bias  have an illusion about their own superiority. They think they are better than the average person. They also tend to underestimate those who are the most competent.

A 1999 study, conducted by Dunning and Justin Kruger, two researchers at Cornell University, demonstrated this effect. A very strange thing about this study is that the Dunning-Kruger effect seems to be unique to Western society. When they tried to repeat this study in Asia, they found that the exact opposite happened.

What is behind the Dunning-Kruger effect?

The Dunning-Kruger effect presupposes that incompetent people do not have the necessary abilities to distinguish themselves from those who have better skills than them.

People who lack the knowledge or wisdom to perform are often unaware of their inadequacy. Researchers attribute their lack of attention to inadequate metacognitive skills.

In other words, it is the same incompetence that causes them to make bad decisions, which also makes it impossible for them to realize their problem. Nor can they recognize it in other peoples.

In fact, there is a whole group of intellectually mediocre people who live in the belief that they are charismatic geniuses. In general, they do it because other people find it attractive.

The results of Kruger and Dunning’s studies can be interpreted differently. However, the effect is usually the following: Of all the people who perform a specific task, those with the fewest skills believe that they are very well prepared to complete it. On the other hand, the best ones tend not to have much confidence in their skills. 

The reason why incompetent people are successful

The explanation lies in a fascinating idea called bare-world fallacy. According to this belief, you deserve the results you get in life. People who think that way think they are where they are in life because of their positive qualities.

What we can see is that incompetent people think they are better than they really are. However, they generally do not believe that they are as good as those who are actually talented and competent.

It is important to emphasize that Dunning and Kruger have never proven that incompetent people think they are better than competent people. They just think they are better than they are and they shout it out loud.

There is a significant difference between the way incompetent people perceive their performance and how it actually behaves in reality. People who are highly competent have a better idea about their actual performance and abilities.

The Dunning-Kruger effect makes it difficult for truly unskilled people to try to improve. Until they acknowledge their shortcomings, they will never be able to overcome them. On the other hand, this cognitive imbalance deters those who are already talented from doing their absolute best. This is because believing in oneself is crucial to success.

Examples of the Dunning-Kruger effect

For example, if you are not very good at languages, it may be difficult for you to realize this. This is because you lack the necessary skills to be able to distinguish one who speaks a good foreign language from a bad one.

If you can not hear the difference between two different phonemes, then how can you know who has a good pronunciation and who does not? If you only know a few words of a foreign language, how can you compare the size of your own vocabulary with others?

Or maybe you’ve heard someone talk many times about something they know nothing about. Those who know something, on the other hand, remain silent. You can even see examples of this in the media. People pay more attention to those who speak with confidence, even if they do not tell the truth.

Conclusion

Basically, the Dunning-Kruger effect claims that ignorant people think they are good, and those who are really good think themselves incompetent.

Overcoming this effect is crucial for our society. If you ever think you know the truth, look forward to it. We need more wise people to trust themselves and share their knowledge with others.