The Dunning-Kruger Effect:

 

Admitting Mistakes

“Dunning-Kruger Effect: A cognitive bias whereby people of low ability, expertise, or experience regarding a certain type of task or area of knowledge tend to overestimate their ability or knowledge.”

          My friend and neighbor, Marcia sent me this quote this morning. I wrote about cognitive bias last week and wanted to be sure I understood and explained it correctly. I am not a scientist, as I’m sure you know, and sometimes I get the facts wrong—for example, last week when I mistakenly said our atmosphere is hydrogen and oxygen. Marcia’s husband Stan, who is a real scientist, gently corrected me—it’s nitrogen and oxygen—and I went back and changed my blog. Here’s the kicker—I looked that up on Google (of course) and thought I had done due diligence. But either, Google was wrong, or I made a mistake when I wrote it down. Whichever it was, I was wrong, and I am grateful Stan caught it and corrected me.

          I don’t know whether that qualifies as Dunning-Kruger effect or not, but it probably does. The Dunning Kruger effect basically states that we think we know something is true or factual because we are unaware of our own ignorance. Most people who read that definition above will apply it to the opposition political party and its candidates—so do I most of the time. But whoever you are, and whoever they are, there’s a whopping good chance that you are wrong some of the time about some things, and that they are right sometimes. We can’t know everything, especially now that there is so much contradictory information swirling around us all the time. It’s almost impossible to sort through all the sources and opinions, to arrive at a correct answer—so we just google it and trust that Google has it right. The key seems to be to understand that we could be wrong, and they could be right. (So hard to say, isn’t it?)

          We live in the “information age” and it’s only reasonable that sometimes the information we have is wrong. The point of the Dunning-Kruger effect is to realize that simple fact and be willing and psychologically sound enough to admit it and still feel like a capable person. So many of us have fragile egos, and when someone says “you’re wrong” it knocks the props out from under us. There’s no shame in saying, “maybe I need to rethink that,” or “perhaps you’re right,” or “thanks for setting me straight.” In fact, it takes a strong person to simply admit the mistake and not feel so insecure that they must defend themselves. I don’t know about you, but too often I’d rather be swallowed by a boa constrictor than say, “You’re right, and I’m wrong.”

          Cognitive bias comes about when we would rather not know the facts about something because that would mean we were wrong about it in the first place. But, today, in this climate of hostility that teeters on the brink of disaster all the time, we simply can’t afford to ignore the facts. We must crack open the door just a little bit, tone down the hostility, and open our ears and our hearts to listen to opinions that are different from ours. We have a choice between defending our fragile egos and surviving as a species. And that goes for ALL of us—including you and me.

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane