They set out to test these hypotheses on human subjects consisting of Cornell undergraduates who were registered in various psychology courses. In a series of studies, Kruger and Dunning examined self-assessment of logical reasoning skills, grammatical skills, and humor. After being shown their test scores, the subjects were again asked to estimate their own rank, whereupon the competent group accurately estimated their rank, while the incompetent group still overestimated their own rank. As Dunning and Kruger noted,
Across four 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 test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd.
Meanwhile, people with true knowledge tended to underestimate their competence. A follow-up study suggests that grossly incompetent students improve both their skill level and their ability to estimate their class rank only after extensive tutoring in the skills they had previously lacked.
Apply it as you wish.
Insomnia, Dan?
I’m up grading papers. I’m sick, so I hit the sack around 4pm.
Ah, grading. I remember it well, though not with any fondness. My most student-friendly grading occurred when I had a few beers. Sure, there was grease from the pizza and onion rings on the papers, but they got a break, so, you know, win-win.
Amen. But I’m not in any condition even for one beer.
“Across four 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 test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd.”
Sounds like the pw trolls.
I’m up grading papers.
No grading for me this semester, but I’ve got to put a new class together from scratch before January.
An academic blogger I read said something about a stack of papers so high that the bottom layers were turning into diamond.
Sorry you’re sick, Dan.
And the incompetents will go on to get a degree in journalism.
We’ve coined a phrase for such folks at my place: “To fuckin’ stupid to know they’re stupid.” Or variations thereof.
The phrase “Delusions of Adequacy” has now been shown to have a basis in fact.
Linked at http://socratesbox.blogspot.com/2008/12/sudden-discovery-of-obvious.html
I wonder, though, which comes first: do incompetent people overestimate their ability, or does overestimating ability cause one not to improve it?
Voters believe themselves competent, whether they are or not. Poll tests! Because we can’t let dummies choose the dummies.
I tell you from experience, teachers have completely lost touch with the actual purpose of their job – to TEACH kids something.
You see, I love to learn. But I hated school. Why? Because they stuffed it with all this useless crud to bring up grades but that didn’t actually teach you anything. I didn’t do the useless stuff, and my grade went down, and yet my test averages were all in the 80s and 90s.
My biggest pet peeve is graded homework. Yes, for certain classes it’s appropriate – English comes to mind, as far as papers and reading go. But take math for example. If I understand the lesson in class, why am I obligated to go home and do 20 problems that won’t actually teach me anything? Ugh, okay, rant off.