What is the Dunning Kruger effect, the phenomenon that causes overconfidence?

Charles Darwin once wrote that “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge”, and real-life situations which reflect that are all too common. To cite just one prominent example, in January 1995, American men MacArthur Wheeler and Clifton Earl Johnson were arrested after carrying out coordinated bank robberies in the state of Pennsylvania.

Incredibly, they didn’t bother wearing masks, as they believed that rubbing lemon juice on their faces would make them invisible to security cameras. Actually no, but bear with me; I’m getting there. The case got a lot of media coverage, and piqued the curiosity of social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger at Cornell University. They wanted to know how on earth someone could be so damn sure of themselves while believing something completely stupid.

Where does this effect come from? Is that what the Dunning and Kruger effect is then? What are the consequences of the Dunning Kruger effect? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

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A Bababam Originals podcast, written and produced by Joseph Chance.

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