Question

Can we rely on self-evaluations to accurately reflect our own competence?

To investigate this phenomenon in the lab, Dunning and Kruger designed some experiments. In one study (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., they asked undergraduate students a series of questions about grammar, logic and jokes, and then asked each student to estimate his or her score overall, and to judge their relative rank compared to the other students. Interestingly, students who scored the lowest in these cognitive tasks always overestimated how well they did—by a lot. Students who scored in the bottom quartile estimated that they had performed better than two-thirds of the other students!

In a follow-up study (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., Dunning and Kruger left the lab and went to a gun range, where they quizzed gun hobbyists about gun safety. Those who answered the most questions incorrectly wildly overestimated their knowledge about firearms.

The Dunning-Kruger effect can also be observed in people’s self-assessment of many other personal abilities. If you watch talent shows on television today, you will see the shock on the faces of contestants who don’t make it past auditions and are rejected by the judges. While the audience laughs, poor performers are genuinely unaware of how much they have misjudged their abilities.

What might explain this finding? First, lacking strategies and skills makes it easy to get things wrong. Second, lacking insight that comes from acquiring skills makes it difficult to recognize that one has made a mistake.

One study (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. found that 80 percent of drivers rate themselves as above average—a statistical impossibility. And similar trends have been found when people rate their relative popularity (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and cognitive abilities (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

In a semester-long study (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. of college students, good students could better predict their performance on future exams given feedback about their scores and relative percentile. The poorest performers showed no recognition, however despite clear and repeated feedback that they were not doing well. Instead of being confused, perplexed or thoughtful about their habitual mistakes, incompetent people insist that their estimates and conclusions are correct.

Interestingly, really smart people also fail to accurately self-assess their abilities. As much as D- and F-grade students overestimate their abilities, A-grade students underestimate theirs. In their classic study, Dunning and Kruger found that high-performing students, whose cognitive scores were in the top quartile, underestimated their relative competence. These students presumed that if these cognitive tasks were easy for them, then they must be just as easy or even easier for everyone else. This so-called ‘imposter syndrome’ can be likened to the inverse of the Dunning-Kruger effect, whereby high achievers fail to recognize their talents and think that others are equally competent.

So, it seems few of us are able to accurately evaluate our competence. If we are high performers, our estimates are low. If our performance is poor, we estimate high. The difference is that competent people can and do adjust their self-assessment given appropriate feedback, while incompetent individuals do not.

This article was originally published at Aeon (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and has been republished under Creative Commons. Edited for classroom use.

Directions:

For each of the following statements (below) decide whether it is consistent or not consistent with the general conclusion from these studies above. Or determine the statement is irrelevant to this specific issue question.

Top performers consistently underestimateChoose] how superior or distinctive their performances are relative to their peers People are more threatened by the success of friends than the success of strangers. [Choose High-performing students were accurate in estimating their performance level, withChoose] accuracy improving over multiple exams. Lowest performing students showed gross overconfidence in predictions and postdictions about their performance.

Answer 1

This announcement is a consistent articulation with the finishes of the investigation referenced above, as the ends makes reference to that that superior workers think little of their capacities.

This announcement is an irrelevant articulation to the end referenced with respect to the examination, as no such inductions can be reached from the inferences of the investigation referenced previously.

This is not consistent predictable proclamation with the ends memtioned above in regards to the investigation, as the ends demonstrate that high performing understudies who were in the top quartile of the execution belittled their aptitudes and capacities.

This announcement is a consistent articulation with the finishes of the investigation referenced previously.