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Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments

People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make
unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it. Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd. Several analyses linked this miscalibration
to deficits in metacognitive skill, or the capacity to distinguish accuracy from error. Paradoxically, improving the skills of participants, and thus increasing their metacognitive competence, helped them recognize the limitations of their abilities.

Tags: psychology on 2008-01-01 -All Annotations (0) -About

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Not sure if they are saying anything more than people who lack domain skills are not in a position to offer expert advice related tothat domain. If the relevant part is that these people then go on to inflate their opinions of their results then I presume it's a point of caution to the listener? Or is it relevant that people inflate ratherthan deflate. Why is it relevant?
post by whertha on 2008-01-01

Because people usually choose what they think is

the most reasonable and optimal option (Metcalfe, 1998), the

failure to recognize that one has performed poorly will instead

leave one to assume that one has performed well. As a result, the

incompetent will tend to grossly overestimate their skills and

abilities.
Add Sticky Note
- Further to the note below, Wikipedia includes in the definition of metacognitive "maintaining motivation to see a task to completion is also a metacognitive skill" which does sound related.
  posted by whertha on 2008-01-01
- Makes one wonder if this effect represents some form of denal of incompetence and is related to other research on "raising smart children." In that study they noted that:
  1. Many people assume that superior intelligence or ability is a key to success. But more than three decades of research shows that an overemphasis on intellect or talent—and the implication that such traits are innate and fixed—leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unmotivated to learn.
  2. Teaching people to have a “growth mind-set,” which encourages a focus on effort rather than on intelligence or talent, produces high achievers in school and in life.
  posted by whertha on 2008-01-01
These findings suggest that unaccomplished individuals do not

possess the degree of metacognitive skills necessary for accurate

self-assessment that their more accomplished counterparts possess.
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- It follows that if one is less skilled then one has a less of a foundation to make such accurate judgements. However, the question is (if they do) why do people tend to come to higher estimates of their abilities rather than more conservative estimates? Further, if one is considered epert in one field do they over estimate their abilities in fields outside their expertise?
  posted by whertha on 2008-01-01
training packet was so successful that those who

had originally scored in the bottom quartile were just as accurate

in monitoring their test performance as were those
but they

were considerably more calibrated overall and were no longer

miscalibrated with respect to their raw test score,
Add Sticky Note
- So, training helped?
  posted by whertha on 2008-01-01

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Dunning-Kruger effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Dunning-Kruger effect is the phenomenon wherein people who have little knowledge think that they know more than others who have much more knowledge

Tags: psychology on 2008-01-01 and saved by4 people -All Annotations (0) -About

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