Tag Archives: dunning-kruger

Understanding the Dunning-Kruger Effect

The actual Dunning-Kruger graph

I was just having a conversation with someone who is convinced that the Dunning-Kruger effect does not accurately describe how things work in the real world. He went back and pointed out the original paper, written by David Dunning and Justin Kruger, which showed that while poor performers on tests did overestimate their own performance, it wasn’t the standard graph that we see all the time.

That is true, although David Dunning later published another study which got a lot closer to the common graph. So is the classical graph really accurate? Let’s talk about it. Continue reading Understanding the Dunning-Kruger Effect

The Epitome of the Dunning-Kruger Effect

I wish I could say this didn’t happen every day, but it does. I was in a “centrist” group on social media, mostly because I am sick and tired of both the left and the right, and we were talking about how both extremes on the political spectrum were following the same playbook, just for different audiences.

Someone popped up and said “you don’t know what you’re talking about!” Really? Then why are my posts getting absurdly up-voted and yours are getting endlessly down-voted? I think you’ve got that backwards. Continue reading The Epitome of the Dunning-Kruger Effect