When You Don't Know that You Don't Know

In all my working years (workplace and campus), this phenomenon repeats itself in self evaluation:  

The achievers rate themselves low; the laggards rate themselves high. I didn't realize till the long lockdowns, which gave me ample time to research, that this occurrence is not a new disease or mental illness.

It is a fact, and it has a name: 

Dunning-Kruger effect.

"It is a type of cognitive bias in which people believe that they are smarter and more capable than they really are. Essentially, low-ability people do not possess the skills to recognize their own incompetence. 

This behavior is as old as the hills, but it was only in 1999, when the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology published a research paper by David Dunning and Justin Kruger, who studied and documented it.

We have known this theory since the time of Socrates, who is often quoted as having said, “The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing.” 

The Dunning-Kruger effect explains why unskilled people think they know it all and tend to be overconfident. Or simply put, incompetent people think they know more than they really do, and they tend to be more boastful about it.

In their research, the duo quizzed people on several topics: grammar, logical reasoning and humor. After each test, they asked the participants how they thought they performed.  

The results, even if they already knew the hypothesis beforehand, shocked them just the same. No matter the subject, the people who did poorly on the tests ranked their competence much higher. Those least likely to know what they were talking about believed they knew as much as the experts.

Dunning and Kruger’s results have been replicated in: math skills, wine tasting, chess, medical knowledge among surgeons and firearm safety among hunters. The results are the same. 

In my past Critical Writing classes in MBA and college, on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest), the good writers rated themselves a low average of 2, explaining they still had to work hard to perfect their craft. 

Contrarily, those who could hardly write a coherent paper with correct grammar, boasted, "I am definitely a 5!" Or, "I am a 4.8, missing just some of writing technicalities." 

What's even sadder about the research is: the poorest performers are also the least likely to accept criticism or show interest in self improvement.

If you were a boss or a teacher, what would you do? 

I did away with self-evaluation for a while. But the urge to test this theory comes and goes—all because it makes me reflect on where the grace of knowing oneself comes from:  

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." (Proverbs 9:10 NKJV)