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Good afternoon, my dear readers. Have you heard of the term Dunning-Kruger Syndrome? It turns out that many suffer from it, but they themselves do not even know about it. Let’s try to figure out what it is and what to do if it is present.
What it is?
Dunning-Kruger syndrome was first discussed in 1999. American social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger have found that there are people who tend not to accurately assess themselves and their capabilities in a certain area. In other words, such individuals are prone to self-deception.
We often overestimate our abilities. As a result, illusory superiority makes incompetent people think they are superior and amazing. It has been established that the less a person of this type has knowledge and skills in a certain area, the more he considers himself an expert and a role model. Such people do not have the slightest idea and idea of the extent of their stupidity.
The essence of the paradox
The main paradox is that people who know a lot, experienced and talented, because of their modesty, tend to belittle and underestimate themselves and their capabilities. Therefore, the discrepancy between the capabilities of employees and the positions they hold is a frequent occurrence in modern society.
If the well-known «impostor effect» is capable of depriving the world of talent, then in our case, each of us can personally feel the negative impact of the Dunning-Kruger effect on ourselves.
Just imagine that we will be treated by unqualified doctors, taught by unqualified teachers, judged by unqualified judges, and so on. It’s scary to think what our world can turn into in this case in a few decades.
The problem of awareness and self-esteem
Dunning and Kruger made it absolutely clear that a high level of self-importance plays a big role in the lives of many people. It is because of this that false ideas about one’s own competence arise.
Each of us is subject to this feeling in one area or another. We cannot adequately assess ourselves in some cases simply because we do not have certain knowledge and skills. In other words, we do not know the rules well in order to break them with success and ingenuity.
Until we have a basic understanding of competence in a particular case, we will not even realize that we have failed. We just can’t recognize it.
Communication with the brain
According to some scientists, this effect can be seen as a defensive reaction of our brain. After all, the realization of one’s incompetence for people with a weak sense of self-worth becomes an emotional blow, after which depression appears and unwillingness to move forward. Scientists have given the name of such a reaction to anosognosia — the absence of a critical assessment by patients of their disease or current condition.
Science knows a case when it was impossible to explain this to a patient who lost a limb. That is, he still lived with the idea that he had all the limbs in their places. Doctors could not convey to him the opposite information. And then, when the doctor began to talk to him about a healthy hand, the patient behaved adequately and calmly. But as soon as the right hand, which he lost, was discussed, the patient ignored all talk about it. He pretended not to hear the doctor and did not understand what he was talking about.
This behavior is explained as follows. Monitoring the patient’s brain activity indicates that the patient is doing this completely unconsciously. His partially damaged brain simply blocks the information that he has this kind of handicap. This happens on a subconscious level.
Scientists managed to record cases when it was impossible for blind people to explain what they do not see. This is an extreme case of anosognosia, it is confirmation that the brain deliberately blocks information about our incompetence or imperfection. And this is a kind of protective reaction from possible emotional blows. Some people find it easier to believe in the absurdity of generally accepted facts and information than to admit their own oversight, imperfection. To some extent this is understandable, but not correct.
In certain critical situations, the brain of each person tends to block information that is unpleasant for him, which can serve as a blow. If any words indicate the fallacy of our models of reality or mental judgments, the brain blocks them. In fact, in such cases, we simply ignore this information.
Thus, our own brain can keep us in a state of bias. Naturally, we can and must fight this. The main thing for the success of such a struggle is to accept the fact that we are imperfect, and therefore we can forgive ourselves for mistakes and inconsistency with some of our own standards.
Experimental confirmation of the theory
In order for the theory not to remain just a theory, a number of studies were carried out. One of them is an experiment involving students attending a psychology course at Cornell University.
The researchers proceeded from the results of the experience of their predecessors. They argued that the origins of incompetence is ignorance of the basics of a certain activity. For example, playing chess, driving a vehicle, playing billiards, etc.
They formulated a law according to which people with a low level of qualification in any industry are characterized by such features:
- reassessment of one’s own strengths and capabilities;
- inability to realize the real extent of their incompetence;
- inability to adequately assess the high degree of competence in this industry of other people;
- a tendency to realize the level of one’s previous incompetence after training, even if it has hardly improved.
The results of the research were published in a scientific psychological journal in December 1999. According to these figures, a curve was constructed, which confirms the results of the studies. Specialists with a more or less high level of competence almost always tend to underestimate their capabilities in any area. Whereas people with the lowest level of it, on the contrary, almost always consider themselves experts, consummate professionals.
Historical facts
By carefully analyzing the above principle and remembering history, we can identify people who understood this even in those distant times. They observed this phenomenon and boldly declared it.
These are famous people such as:
- Confucius: «True knowledge lies in knowing the limits of one’s ignorance»;
- Lao Tzu: “He who knows does not speak; he who speaks does not know”;
- Socrates: «I know that I know nothing, and others do not know this either.»
What to do?
What to do to check and evaluate your own competence?
First, you need to ask about it from those who are really qualified in this field. After all, it is specialists who can adequately assess the knowledge and capabilities of a third party. Feel free to ask for a rating. After all, then you will be able to identify weaknesses for yourself and, if you wish, increase your level of competence.
Secondly, you should continue to study all the time. After all, the more knowledge we can accumulate, the less likely it is that the level of our competence will be in question. Even with a lack of time, you can find a way to deepen your knowledge with the help of specialized literature, online and offline courses, seminars, etc.
If desired, anyone can get rid of this state. The main thing is a strong desire and perseverance in achieving the plan. After all, we often self-sabotage ourselves and do not even realize it.
Conclusion
In addition to this article, I recommend reading about developing your character strengths.
I hope you learned something new from this article and outlined for yourself a vector of actions in the direction you need. Good luck and see you in the next articles. All the best to you!