Dunning-Kruger Effect
People with limited knowledge overestimate their competence, while experts underestimate theirs.
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a type of cognitive bias in which people with limited knowledge or competence in a given intellectual or social domain greatly overestimate their own knowledge or competence in that domain relative to objective criteria or to the performance of their peers or of people in general. It was identified by social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger in a 1999 study at Cornell University.
What it looks like in the wild.
- Everyday life Amateur Experts Online People with a few hours of reading on a topic debate established experts in online forums with supreme confidence.
Recognising a definition is not the same skill as spotting it.
Two scenarios from the app, with distractors drawn from the same family of biases — which is what makes them hard.
After growing a few vegetables, a person believes they could manage a commercial farm, even though they lack knowledge of crop rotation, pest management, irrigation systems, and the agricultural science professional farmers master through years of experience.
A person who completed a beginner yoga course believes they could teach advanced classes, even though they lack understanding of anatomy, injury prevention, and the body mechanics knowledge experienced yoga instructors develop through years of practice.
Biases rarely arrive alone.
Understand more. Assume less.
188 biases, 18,869 scenarios, and a record of how you actually decide.
Get Debias on Google Play