Incompetent People Are Often Too Incompetent To Realize Just How Incompetent They Are, Says New Study
***Old thread resurrection***
Someone mentioned Dunning-Kruger in another thread. Coincidentally just before I opened that thread I watched a video with a nice, concise explanation. Let cartoon Mr. Spock be your guide...
I don't understand that I'm not that exceptional / talented / smart / sexy. (Mommy told me I am!)
The only places I don't see this is in Boxing / MMA type fights (when sober) and Bull Fighting. Hemingway was right, some things just weed out the stupid. Now if we can take warning labels off of stuff, we'd be much better off!
______________________________________________________________________ "When its time to shoot, shoot. Dont talk!"
“What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It’s not good at much else.” —Author Tom Clancy
August 04, 2025, 01:57 AM
iron chef
quote:
Originally posted by Hound Dog: This is old news. I saw this meme years ago. . .
Mount Stupid.
An irony of the Dunning-Kruger effect is that frequently ppl who reference it are themselves guilty of the Dunning-Kruger effect. In other words, they think they grasp Dunning & Kruger's conclusions a lot better than they actually do. It's very meta.
For example, the graph of Mount Stupid above is an inaccurate representation of Dunning-Kruger's research, but I'm sure whoever made the meme thought he was very clever.
Here's an actual graph from their paper, "Perceived logical reasoning ability and test performance as a function of actual test performance (Study 4)"
If you really care to know more, look up "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments" - Justin Kruger & David Dunning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1999 Vol. 77, No. 6.
I'll add that their paper opens w/ this very humorous anecdote.
"In 1995, McArthur Wheeler walked into two Pittsburgh banks and robbed them in broad daylight, with no visible attempt at disguise. He was arrested later that night, less than an hour after videotapes of him taken from surveillance cameras were broadcast on the 11 o'clock news. When police later showed him the surveillance tapes, Mr. Wheeler stared in incredulity. "But I wore the juice," he mumbled. Apparently, Mr. Wheeler was under the impression that rubbing one's face with lemon juice rendered it invisible to videotape cameras (Fuocco, 1996)"
August 04, 2025, 02:12 AM
iron chef
quote:
Originally posted by CPD SIG: ^^^^Exactly!
It was just very average
What's your definition of average?
YOU!
I'm sorry, I just don't understand...
Take it w/ a grain of salt. That kid Ashwin in The X Factor clip was brought back to audition in at least three more seasons, which makes me wonder how much of it was staged? It is after all a reality (heavy emphasis on the air quotes) competition show. It's obvious they brought him back to be a butt of jokes, so did he sing badly on purpose?
Singing & musical talent are a good examples of Dunning-Kruger though. If you're tone-deaf, how do you understand being out of tune anymore than a color-blind person can distinguish colors? Conversely, if you have absolute pitch or close to it, then you can detect every minute pitch imperfection, which is likely to make one very self-critical of one's performance.
August 04, 2025, 05:47 AM
12131
So, it’s been three years. Has anyone conducted another study to confirm the previous finding?
Q
August 04, 2025, 09:12 AM
nhtagmember
We are doing a study on that right now.
I’m hoping the to publish the results late last year when we conclude our research in August.
August 04, 2025, 01:26 PM
slosig
quote:
Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
quote:
Without having read the "findings," I suspect they've concluded that more research is necessary, so keep those grants flowing in.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Did not see that statement. Perhaps you should read the entire article.LOL
It would be easier to read the entire article if the OP didn’t contain two copies of it.
August 05, 2025, 07:37 PM
Rey HRH
quote:
Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
quote:
Without having read the "findings," I suspect they've concluded that more research is necessary, so keep those grants flowing in.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Did not see that statement. Perhaps you should read the entire article.LOL
I’m not playing “gotcha,” just trying to be factual. Perhaps you should read the study linked from the article. You’ll find it in the fourth paragraph under Discussion section. It is what they say how it is.
quote:
Of course, this research also has limitations. The data analyzed here cannot directly speak to why some more polarized issues show weaker associations between different knowledge types and attitudes. The relation between opposition and objective knowledge may cancel out at the high end of the distribution (21, 42), but the case for subjective knowledge is less clear, and there are many potential factors. It is possible, for example, that higher levels of media attention, or even how easy or difficult it is to imagine the harms associated with each scientific issue, could shift how (or whether) people make assessments of their own knowledge. More research is needed before strong conclusions can be drawn on this point.
"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946.
