Dunning-Kruger effect; the less we know, the smarter we think we are.

The imperfect perception of our own capabilities.

Do you think you are good at estimating your own capabilities and knowledge? We don't know you, but there's research that makes us think that no, you're not very good at it.

The Dunning-Kruger effect: the less we know, the smarter we think we are.

The Dunning-Kruger effect teaches us that people with fewer skills, abilities and knowledge tend to overestimate the skills and knowledge they actually have, and vice versa. Thus, the most capable and competent are underestimated. How can this strange phenomenon be explained?

The inept criminal who tried to be invisible with lemon juice

In the mid-1990s, a 44-year-old Pittsburgh resident, a tough individual, robbed two banks in the mid-1990s, robbed two banks in his city in his hometown in broad daylight, without any clothing or masks to cover his face. His criminal venture ended within hours of committing both robberies, during his misdeed.

Upon his arrest, McArthur Wheeler confessed that he had applied lemon juice to his face, hoping that the juice would make him appear invisible to the cameras. the juice would make him appear invisible to the cameras.. "I don't understand, I used the lemon juice," he sobbed at the time of his police arrest.

It was later learned that the unheard-of juice idea was a suggestion that two of Wheeler's friends explained days before the robbery. Wheeler tested the idea by applying juice to his face and taking a photograph to make sure it was effective. The photograph did not show his face, probably because the framing was awkward and ended up focusing on the ceiling of the room instead of his lemon juice-covered face. Without realizing it, Wheeler assumed that he would remain invisible during the robbery.

Months later, Cornell University social psychology professor David Dunning could not believe the story of the intrepid Wheeler and the lemon juice. Intrigued by the case, especially the incompetence exhibited by the frustrated thief, he set out to conduct an investigation with a prior hypothesis: Could it be possible that my own incompetence made me unaware of that same incompetence?

A somewhat far-fetched hypothesis, but one that made perfect sense. To conduct the study that would elucidate whether the hypothesis was true, Dunning chose a brilliant mentee, Justin Kruger, with the goal of finding data that would confirm or disprove the idea. What they found surprised them even more.

The research

A total of four separate investigations were conducted, sampling students at Cornell University's School of Psychology. The subjects' competence in the areas of grammar, grammaticality, grammaticality and grammargrammar logical reasoning y humor (which can be defined as the ability to detect what is funny).

The study participants were asked, one by one, how they estimated their degree of competence in each of the above-mentioned domains. Subsequently, they were asked to answer a written test to check their actual competence. actual competence in each of the fields.

All the data were collected and the results were compared to see if any sense of correlation was found. As you can imagine, very strong correlations were found.

The researchers found that the greater the subject's incompetence, the less aware he or she was of it.. On the other hand, the more competent and skilled 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 consult the original paper here:

• "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments".

Conclusions about the Dunning-Kruger study

The results of the paper paper can be summarized in a number of conclusions. We can assume that, for a certain competence or with respect to a certain area of knowledge, incompetent people:

More ignorant, more perceived intelligence

Consequently, the individual who boasts that he can sing like an angel, but his "concerts" are always deserted, is a clear example of the Dunning-Kruger effect. We can also observe this phenomenon when experts in some field offer deliberate and calm opinions and considerations on some problem, while people who are ignorant on the subject believe they have absolute and simple answers to the same questions..

Do you know any medical professional? I am sure they can tell you how they feel when a patient decides to take a drug not prescribed by the doctor, based on the erroneous idea that as a patient they "already know what is good for them and what is not". Self-medication, in this case, is another clear example of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

Why does this phenomenon occur?

As Dunning and Kruger point out, this unrealistic unrealistic perception is due to the fact that the skills and competencies required to do something well are precisely the skills required to be able to accurately estimate one's own performance on the task.

Let us give some examples. In the case that my spelling is exceptionally bad, my necessary knowledge to detect that my level in spelling is very low and thus be able to correct my performance is, precisely, to know the rules of spelling. Only by knowing the rules in writing am I able to become aware of my incompetence, or in the case that a third person makes me realize it, warning me of the spelling mistakes I have made when writing a text. Detecting my lack of skills in this area will not automatically correct my gaps in this area; it will only make me aware that my skills need more attention. The same is true for any other area of knowledge.

As for people who undervalue their skills and competencies, we could say that this occurs due to the effect of a false consensusThey tend to think that "everyone does it the same", thus assuming that their skills are within the average. However, in reality their skills are clearly superior.

Reflecting on the Dunning-Kruger effect

If there is one thing we can learn from the Dunning-Kruger effect, it is that we should not pay too much attention when someone tells us that they are "very good" at something, or that they "know a lot" about this or that. It will depend on how that person estimates his or her own capabilities whether he or she is wrong in one sense or the other: either because they overestimate themselves, or because they underestimate their own their capabilities.

When it comes to finding and hiring a person who works in a complex area about which we have little knowledge (an IT specialist, an architect, a tax consultant...) we lack the necessary knowledge to assess his or her level of competence in the field. 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 reach the wrong conclusions and make bad decisions, but their incompetence does not allow them to become aware of it," Dunning and Kruger point out.

From this reflection, another equally, if not more important, emerges. Sometimes, the responsibility for the failures we experience in life is not due to other people or bad luck, but to ourselves and our decisions. To this end, we should carry out a self-evaluation self-evaluation when we come across one of these obstacles in any 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 are ignorant of many things. Each person has some potential for improvement at any point in his or her life: the mistake is to forget this point.

• They tend not to be able to recognize the competence of others.
• They are unable to become aware of the extent to which they are incompetent in an area.
• If they are trained to increase their competence, they will be able to recognize and accept their previous incompetence.