(classical orchestral music)
- Hey Brain Stuff, it's me Ben.
So if you're like most people,
you think you're very good at some things,
and you're able to admit that
you are less good at others.
You likely shake your
head in pity at people
you see as, well, stupid.
Why did they keep dumbing
everywhere on everything,
you ask yourself, why
don't they understand that
they're bad at doing people stuff.
Well, there is an answer but
I can tell you right now,
you might not like it.
It's not a matter of
intelligence necessarily,
that's a difficult thing to measure,
but it is related to,
let's call it competence.
The ability to do something well.
In 1999 a psychologist
named David Dunning,
and his Grad Assistant, Justin Kruger,
tested a group of students
in several categories.
The ability to think logically,
to write grammatically,
and to spot funny jokes.
They also asked the students
to rate their skills in these categories.
And that's when Dunning and
Kruger noticed something weird.
The people scoring below
average on these tests,
weren't just incompetent
in these categories,
they also didn't know
they were incompetent.
And here's the kicker, the
less competent they were,
the more competent they ranked themselves.
This is a phenomenon called
illusory superiority.
Which I know, sounds
like it might be the name
of a Radiohead beside, but
it isn't, as far as we know.
We checked, right?
Instead this is a cognitive
bias, wherein people tend
to rate their own
abilities as above average.
Multiple studies have proven
this effect in everything,
from firearms, to college debates,
to med students opinions of
their interviewing skills.
It doesn't seem to matter
what specific skill
we are talking about, the
less a person knows about
this given thing, the more likely they are
to overestimate their knowledge.
Philosophers throughout the ages
have contemplated this idea.
Like Bertrand Russell, who famously wrote,
"The trouble with the world is
that the stupid are cocksure,
and the intelligent are full of doubt."
I think that's what
his voice sounded like.
And here's another weird thing,
people with actual competency
are likely to underestimate
their abilities.
Researchers believe this
modesty comes about,
because competent people
are just much more aware
of how much they don't actually know,
as well as an awareness
of their field in general.
This all goes back to one
primary thing, metacognition.
Metacognition is the
ability to be aware of,
and understand your own thought process.
So in other words,
it's the ability to think
about how you think.
People tend to evaluate themselves
through what Dunning and Kruger
call a top-down approach.
This means instead of
objectively measuring their performance,
people start with their
preconceived notion of their skill,
I'm a great driver and I'm
really funny, for instance.
And they use that belief
to evaluate their performance later.
But what do you think?
What are you honestly, really,
sincerely, genuinely good at?
Do you know anyone who's maybe
a little to confident in their abilities?
Thanks so much for watching.
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