Dunning-Kruger Effect

There is no better job than a college professor these days. They work very little and get paid 6 figures for it. Teaching load is 1/3 less than it was 20 years ago and acceptable office hours are 9am-10am on the first and third Wednesday of each month but only if those particular days fall on a new moon.

So what do professors do all day? They perform experiments on graduate students and identify things like the Dunnning-Kruger Effect. The effect was found as part of a continuing effort to identify and name all of my personality defects. What is the Dunnning-Kruger Effect? It is the phenomenon that people who don't know anything, can't even figure out that basic fact about themselves. Justin Kruger and David Dunning (both of Cornell) won an Ignobel Award for this research in 2000. Here is the full report.

How did they find this effect? They administered test to graduate students on humor, logical reasoning, and grammar. They then asked the subjects how they did and compared the self-assessment to their actual performance. They also had the subjects grade each other. What did they find? The people who did poorly on the test thought they did very well and didn't recognize those who really did well.

The researchers summed up the people they are talking about:
We argue that when people are incompetent in the strategies they adopt to achieve success and satisfaction, they suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it. Instead, like Mr. Wheeler (a bank robber who believed that smearing lemon juice on his face would render him invisible to security cameras), they are left with the mistaken impression that they are doing just fine.

Here are a few examples of this that we all observe:
- The first few episodes of American Idol.

- Very often the fellow behind you at a sporting even. He (it's very rarely a she) compares the abilities of the performing player to himself or, even more derisively, his grandmother.

- People who write blogs believing that they are somehow contributing to society and culture. In reality, they are hasting the downfall of America and assisting the rise of Canada. Let me be the first to congratulate our maple leafed overlords!

- Those who disparage the careers of others while having no hope of ever achieving such a position. See paragraph 1 above.