Ignorance is Bliss - Scientific Proof

Have you long since belived that you are following rather dubious plans suggested by people who seem to have little or no idea that they are seriously off the mark?  Do you wonder why so and so is in the position that (s)he is in?  Then this article is for you!!  There is a nice little scientific hypothesis that the more incompetent you are the less likely you are to recognise it!

The Dunning-Kruger effect is an example of cognitive bias in which "...people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices but their incompetence robs them of the [metacognitive*] ability to realize it". They therefore suffer an illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average. This leads to a perverse result where people with less competence will rate their ability more highly than people with relatively more competence. It also explains why competence may weaken the projection of confidence because competent individuals falsely assume others are of equivalent understanding. "Thus, the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others."

*Metacognition is defined as "cognition about cognition", or "knowing about knowing."

To visit the full article click here.

Thanks to Merlyn Reid at Salford City Council for spotting this one for us.