You Can Succumb to the Dunning-Kruger Effect and Not Even Know It.
We all have so-called ” cognitive biases “. These mental blind spots affect how we perceive the world, ourselves, and the decisions we make. The worst thing about cognitive distortion is that it is often difficult to become aware of your own just because you are inside it. How can you perceive bias if you are immersed in that bias? It’s like having a distinct smell in your house that everyone else immediately notices, but you’ve become blind to it.
One of the most insidious cognitive biases is the famous Dunning-Kruger effect , which describes how people who are bad at something (or not good at it) do not have a perspective to assess their ability in this matter – lack of experience and knowledge makes us overestimate our capabilities. In other words, people tend to think they’re good at things they’re actually not that good at. This makes us much more susceptible to what scientists call “bullshit ” and can get us into trouble when we get bogged down in tasks or activities we don’t understand.
But, as David Dunning himself points out , one of the biggest problems with the Dunning-Kruger effect is that you, by definition, don’t know you’re in it . If you knew you were a victim of the Dunning-Kruger effect, you would, paradoxically, no longer be a victim of it. In other words, you can swim in it right now as you read this and not realize it. And this can have serious negative consequences for your life if you are hired or promoted for a job that you can’t really do, or if you assume you know how to deal with a health crisis that you’re really not up to. able to cope.
So how do you protect yourself from the Dunning-Kruger effect and protect yourself from the consequences of your own intellectual arrogance?
Challenge yourself
The first and most important way to defend against the Dunning-Kruger effect is to challenge your own assumptions . Even the best of us can fall prey to confirmation bias, only paying attention to the facts and details that support what we already believe. This, in turn, can lead to or support the full Dunning-Kruger effect because we believe we are validating our own experience, when in fact we subconsciously select information that supports the illusion of mastery.
How can you challenge yourself? There are two specific ways to test your own assumptions about your knowledge and skill level in different disciplines:
- Look for experts. One way to find out if you’re really as good at something as you think is to find people who have real, proven experience (and perhaps the credentials to back it up). These could be people in your company or organization who have more experience than you, or who have certain degrees or measurable achievements, such as awards in that area. Test yourself against them and see how you come out.
- Self assessment test. Another way to challenge yourself is to find ways to test your knowledge or abilities. If you think you’re good at chess because you’re constantly winning matches with friends and family who don’t play often or seriously, try dropping into your local chess club and playing some ranked players, or finding a chess AI on the internet, for example. which has a reputation for being challenging and seeing how you’re doing.
- Expand your circle. If you’re the only person in your company or social group who has even the slightest knowledge of a subject, it’s easy to believe you’re an expert because you simply have no one to compare yourself to or challenge yourself with. Finding a wider social group or professional network can help you connect with people who can teach you something—and bring you back to reality in the process.
Consider criticism
People deep in the Dunning-Kruger fog often avoid, ignore, or react poorly to feedback or criticism. Criticism and feedback can be stressful and difficult for any person, but if you think you’re the expert in this room, your instinctive reaction can be quite hostile – after all, these other people can’t know that much. about it, how do you.
But listening with an open mind to feedback is critical to combating the Dunning-Kruger effect . It’s a simple rule: if someone tells you that you don’t understand what you’re talking about, take a step back and ask yourself if it’s true. Consider who is giving you this feedback – do they have authority? Login details? What is their track record when they speak their mind? Perhaps most importantly, are they the first person to offer this criticism, or the latest in a long list of people telling you that you’ve got it all wrong?
Finally, ask for feedback. Just because no one tells you that you’re not as good at something as you think, doesn’t mean they don’t think about it. There are many reasons why people might avoid feedback just as much as you avoid receiving it – maybe it’s a power imbalance (like you’re their boss) or they’re afraid of hurting the relationship (like if you react aggressively to criticism). hostility). Regularly searching for unbiased reviews will tell you everything you need to know about your actual level of knowledge.
Lifelong Learning
There is a concept known as ” lifelong learning ” that can have a huge impact on your susceptibility to the Dunning-Kruger effect. Too many people leave school at a certain level, get a job, and stop learning new things for the rest of their lives. This may contribute to an excessive sense of competence because they were last tested in a subject or skill a long time ago, and they may not realize how much the field has changed or progressed since they last studied it.
Being open and engaging in lifelong learning will help you remain objective about your skills and abilities while keeping those skills sharp and relevant. Study and practice can also be a very fast crash course in everything you don’t know about a subject or discipline. One aspect of the Dunning-Kruger effect is the assumption that because you were once very good at something, you will always be very good at something, despite years of no practice or training. . Continuous study of this subject will help you use the skills you do have while gaining new insights.
One final note: one of the simplest and easiest ways to protect yourself from cognitive biases like the Dunning-Kruger effect is to simply ask yourself if you are absolutely sure that you are not trapped right now. Just being open to the possibility that you are not as smart as you think can act as a firewall against these preconceptions.
Of course, do I know anything about the Dunning-Kruger effect, or do I just think I do? We may never know.