Dunning-Kruger Effect (Digesting The Weak-Minded)

"'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt." -- Abraham Lincoln

There is an interesting theory out there called the Dunning-Kruger Effect, that simply put, suggests that Dumb People Think They're Smart. At Cornell University Justin Kruger and David Dunning hypothesized that:

1) incompetent individuals tend to overestimate their own level of skill,
2) incompetent individuals fail to recognize genuine skill in others,
3) incompetent individuals fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy,
4) if they can be trained to substantially improve their own skill level, these individuals can recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill.

For detailed information about their findings you can read their submission in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology entitled Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments.

Until recently I never really gave much thought to the psychology and reasoning behind some individuals desire to overestimate their own abilities and label others as mediocrity. I suppose that subconsciously I have noticed this form of social interaction but brushed it off for arrogance. For example, in college my peers that would widely vocalize their comprehension on a particular subject or discipline would often exaggerate or speak as fact when they were not certain. Whereas my peers that were more soft-spoken and less likely to gloat were far more gifted. Outside of college, whether it be in a social atmosphere or in a work environment, the same basic principles applied.

A few weeks ago a co-worker of mine turned me on to this phenomenon by referring me to a Wikipedia article about this concept. After reading this article and others related to this mentality I am now much more aware its apparent existence.

Whether you find this to be true in your life or not it is really worth a read....