Here is the link to the 1999 paper by David Dunning and Justin Kruger: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/U ... ebabc?p2dfDunning-Kruger Effect
The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people wrongly overestimate their knowledge or ability in a specific area. This tends to occur because a lack of self-awareness prevents them from accurately assessing their own skills.
Understanding the Dunning-Kruger Effect
The concept of the Dunning-Kruger effect is based on a 1999 paper by Cornell University psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger. The pair tested participants on their logic, grammar, and sense of humor, and found that those who performed in the bottom quartile rated their skills far above average. For example, those in the 12th percentile self-rated their expertise to be, on average, in the 62nd percentile.
The researchers attributed the trend to a problem of metacognition—the ability to analyze one’s own thoughts or performance. “Those with limited knowledge in a domain suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach mistaken conclusions and make regrettable errors, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it,” they wrote.
What causes the Dunning-Kruger effect?
Confidence is so highly prized that many people would rather pretend to be smart or skilled than risk looking inadequate and losing face. Even smart people can be affected by the Dunning-Kruger effect because having intelligence isn’t the same thing as learning and developing a specific skill. Many individuals mistakenly believe that their experience and skills in one particular area are transferable to another.
Why do people fail to recognize their own incompetence?
Many people would describe themselves as above average in intelligence, humor, and a variety of skills. They can’t accurately judge their own competence, because they lack metacognition, or the ability to step back and examine oneself objectively. In fact, those who are the least skilled are also the most likely to overestimate their abilities.
Apparently, all of us are susceptible to the Dunning-Kruger Effect but few of us are consciously aware when we are exhibiting the diagnostic symptoms.
So, I'm compelled to consider if the Dunning-Kruger Effect best explains the arrogant confidence various untrained and unqualified pseudo-intellectuals have in their poorly researched and tragically misinformed objections to demonstrably reliable scientific theories which are rigorously and routinely tested by actual experts who are trained and qualified in their relevant fields?
If not the Dunning-Kruger Effect, what are other candidate explanations for this deleterious social phenomenon?
Is there a compassionate way to facilitate intellectual humility and help each other recognize when our confidence in a particular perspective is disproportionately high compared to our level of competence?