Dunning Kruger effect; Consequences, causes, coping method
Although you may not be familiar with this phrase, we have all had the experience of running into it. We have all experienced it, even if we weren’t aware of it. The term “Dunning Kruger effect” refers to persons who falsely believe they are brighter and more capable than others. It is named after the two scientists who developed it. Read this post through to the end to learn the cause of this issue and how to solve it.
What is the Dunning Kruger effect?
Cognitive errors include the Dunning-Kruger phenomenon. A person makes the mistake of believing he is wiser and more capable than he actually is. You’ll be immediately brought back to memory by this definition of compound ignorance, which holds that an ignorant individual is unconscious of his own stupidity.
The two researchers that did study in this area gave rise to the name of this work. Social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Krueger conducted study on this issue.
What were the results of Dunning Kruger’s research?
Dunning and Krueger asked 65 volunteers to judge how humorous a variety of jokes were in one study. Some folks had a really difficult time picking out amusing jokes. This was when some of the experiment’s jokes were at their funniest. Why were the jokes rated so poorly by these people? because of lack of insight. People who lack competence not only perform poorly, but often refuse to acknowledge their own shortcomings. People refused to recognise the humour in jokes as a result of their sense of superiority.
These two researchers conducted the majority of their study on students. They discovered that some underperforming students not only failed to recognise their low performance but also claimed to be smarter than others in order to earn better ratings. Poor performers are unable of appreciating the talent and expertise of others. They perceive themselves as superior to others in part because of this.
In an intriguing investigation, Dunning and his colleagues questioned a group of students about whether or not they were familiar with a set of topics. These ideas came from a variety of disciplines, including physics, biology, politics, and geography. In addition to the actual notions, there were a few idioms that were entirely made up. Ninety percent of the pupils said they were familiar with the hypothetical topics. Students who insisted they knew more than others did so by claiming to be more knowledgeable about such fictitious ideas. This outcome was in line with that of earlier studies conducted by Dunning and Kruger.
David Dunning contends that incompetent people exhibit both false self-confidence and concern over their subpar performance. They call it wisdom, but it’s really just a front of stupidity!
What effect does Dunning Kruger have on our attitude and behavior?
To determine what the effects of believing oneself to be smarter and more capable are in various contexts, other researchers have looked at this impact in several disciplines. The outcomes of a few of these studies are reviewed in the paragraphs that follow.
1. In medicine and medical education
The effect of Dunning Kruger’s work on medical graduates was the subject of a study in 2020. The inexperienced doctors who performed poorly thought of themselves as superior. For instance, people who were in the bottom 25% in terms of rank thought they were 30% to 40% superior than others.
On the other hand, this group frequently saw feedback and criticism as erroneous and unhelpful and did not respond to it in a constructive manner.
2. In Business
Additional study in this area has produced the following findings:
High self-confidence individuals who are unable to work well are employed.
More incompetent people receive promotions than highly intelligent and capable people.
The performance of those with this cognitive mistake does not improve despite receiving feedback.
The detrimental implications of Dunning Kruger in office settings that may have such repercussions are as follows:
error in judgement; negative effects on the attitudes and performance of those who report to management; conflict and unhappiness among staff members and customers; negative effects on workplace performance as a whole.
3. politics
When describing political and social policies, persons who are associated with a political party or current sound confident, but their understanding of the policies is limited, according to a 2013 study of these individuals.
Other studies conducted in 2017 and 2018 revealed that those with poor analytical abilities tend to get more involved in political movements and parties, giving the party complete control over their actions and robbing them of the ability to think critically. They remove.
4.Driving
One of the thought-provoking consequences of Dunning Kruger’s work in society is the driving situation. Logic dictates that only half of drivers can have a skill greater than the average skill of all drivers. But according to a 2013 study, 673 out of 909 motorcyclists considered themselves more skilled motorcyclists.
This means that many people are likely to exaggerate their driving skills and think they are more skilled than they really are. As a result, such people take more risks while driving. Greater risk is associated with an increased likelihood of traffic accidents.
5. Immunization and general health
Researchers polled 1,310 residents of the United States to see what they thought about the connection between autism and the triple vaccination. More over one-third of the participants gave false information, while those with the least information claimed to know more than the others.
There is no connection between this vaccination and autism. One of the widespread myths regarding vaccinations is this one. The findings of this study, however, demonstrated that an increase in ignorance can harm the general public’s health. They could opt out of the immunisation campaign and persuade others to do the same.
Why does the Dunning-Kruger effect occur?
1. Inability to recognize poor skills and mistakes
According to Dunning, a person’s lack of expertise in his line of work leads to two issues. First of all, he performs poorly, and secondly, since he lacks knowledge and expertise, he is unable to recognise his bad performance.
2. Poor self-reflection
The capacity to evaluate one’s performance and aptitude without cognitive biases is known as metacognition. It is comparable to honestly assessing how we appear to ourselves when we look in the mirror. Most people use cognitive biases while evaluating their knowledge and skills, which causes them to overrate their abilities. Because of this, occasionally people are unable to identify their vulnerabilities.
3. little knowledge
A small bit of information can occasionally cause the Dunning-Kruger effect. A person who gains expertise in an area by independent study or some schooling may believe he is an expert on the subject. The effect of this aspect is expressed by the proverb
“a little knowledge might be more hazardous than no knowledge.”
4. A desire to discover imaginary patterns
Our brain has a propensity to comprehend the outer environment. The development of various mental patterns and schema is linked to this understanding. There may not always be a trend. The world is a complicated chaotic place where many things happen at random and without any discernible structure. As a result, when our brain searches for a pattern that doesn’t exist, an erroneous understanding of a phenomenon is created.
How to deal with the Dunning Kruger effect?
Do we know how to avoid or reduce the Dunning-Kruger effect? Can someone who is undeserving be told they are incapable? According to Dunning, everyone in the human race is misunderstood. All of us are susceptible to this cognitive mistake. We thus need to understand how the brain functions and mental mistakes in order to decrease the likelihood of falling victim to such events.
We’ll look at several remedies in the section that follows to lessen the likelihood that we’ll fall victim to this impact.
1. Continue to learn and practice skills
We become increasingly aware of how little we know and how much more there is to learn as we gain knowledge. It can safeguard us from egotism.
2. Ask others to evaluate our performance
Asking people to evaluate our performance is one more strategy to counter the Dunning-Kruger effect. This might be challenging at times since we need to improve our capacity for accepting criticism. But when we take constructive criticism in stride, we discover how other people view our skills and expertise.
3. To doubt what we know
Despite the first two remedies, we might still experience this effect because we might only consider the positive aspects rather than considering the faults. “Confirmation error” is the name given to this cognitive bias. It is better to occasionally question our beliefs and seek out opposing viewpoints.
