Unskilled and Unaware of it

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology - APA ^ | June 10, 1999 | Justin Kruger and David Dunning

[gridlock]

Excerpted from a rather lengthy article.

Found this linked over at AndrewSullivan.com. Great stuff.

[Explorer89]

I thought this was hilarious.

[gridlock]

"But I voted Democrat.... Why am I still poor?"

[lodwick]

doh ;-)

[MrConfettiMan]

"But I wore the juice," he mumbled.

LOL!!!! Great stuff, Exp89. Thanks for the ping.

Looks like I got me a new line to use whenever I make a mistake, "But I was wearin' the juice!" :)

[Citizen Tom Paine]

There are at least two states of unknowing:

Don't know and know that you don't know.

Don't know and don't know that you don't know.

Apparently, there are a lot of persons in the last category.

[Leisler]

Chicken and the egg problem. How do stupid people know that they are stupid? They don't.

[Billthedrill]

Wait a minute! Lemon juice doesn't keep bank cameras from taking your picture?

Uh-oh...gotta run...

[boris]

"Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain."--Frederich von Schiller, The Maid of Orleans.

[KC_Conspirator]

It is one of the essential features of such incompetence that the person so afflicted is incapable of knowing that he is incompetent. To have such knowledge would already be to remedy a good portion of the offense.

Exhibit A: Madelaine Albright

I get this. Its similar to a wise man understanding that he is really not all that wise.

[bert]

...Against stupidity....

For the record, what is stupidty?

Is stupid a condition that can be remedied or is it a congenital condition that cannot be corrected with education?

[antidisestablishment]

Most interesting. I have a son who is MR, and can tell you that the inability to recognize or admit ignorance seems impossible to overcome.

[staytrue]

I read the long article and while the methodology was good, all the tests were done on Cornell students which are not very typical of the population. To me, poor performers must a)admitt they are lousy or b)scapegoat someone or something else or ignore their own incompetence. It is much easier on the brain to choose b. The article concludes that you can improve self evaluation by training the incompetent. I disagree (based only on observation). It is just a lot easier to scapegoat than to blame oneself.

[Desdemona]

Ping (I need to develop a list, because I keep forgetting people)

Long, but an interesting read. In light of recent spinning in circles on other topics....

See, I was right. When I was 20, I knew everything. By the time I reached XX, I realized I knew jack. Maybe I'm not so dumb after all.

[MadIvan]

"I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance." - Socrates

The old Greek said it first.

Regards, Ivan

[XBob]

good observations.

I am reminded of two specific examples -

1. A discussion with a liberal newsman who kept arguing how unbiased the major media news shows were, middle of the road, unbiased reporting.

2. A group of poor black drug users who kept arguing that they weren't afraid of using dirty needles because AIDS was curable and if they got AIDS, all they needed to do was to go get a shot.

[70times7]

When I was 20, I knew everything. By the time I reached XX, I realized I knew jack.

Umm, jack who?

[alaskanfan]

I don't know anything, and I can prove it!

[tsomer]

"A group of poor black drug users who kept arguing that they weren't afraid of using dirty needles because AIDS was curable and if they got AIDS, all they needed to do was to go get a shot."

Or did you hear the story of the junkies caught sharing a second-hand syringe? "Don't worry" they replied "we're all wearing condoms."

Anyway, timely topic, given the last 10 years'"self esteem" psychology.

[Desdemona]

Okay, didn't know jack.

You must excuse me. I recently went back to blonde.