Speaker 1: Deep in the back of your mind. You've always had
Speaker 1: the feeling that there's something strange about reality. There is
Speaker 1: super anno like death, nanopartic mechanicalsia, just punch evolution. On
Speaker 1: our award winning science podcast Stuff About Your Mind, we
Speaker 1: examine neurological quandaries, cosmic mysteries, evolutionary marvels, and our trans
Speaker 1: human future. New episodes come out Tuesdays and Thursdays on iTunes,
Speaker 1: Google Play, Spotify, and anywhere you get your podcast. Welcome
Speaker 1: to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: it's me Christian Seger. If you're like most people, you
Speaker 1: think you're very good at some things and are able
Speaker 1: to admit you're less good at others, you probably think
Speaker 1: you're superbly talented in one or two areas. Hey, you
Speaker 1: may be right. You try to be honest with yourself
Speaker 1: about your strong points and your weak ones, and you
Speaker 1: likely shake your head in pity at people you see
Speaker 1: as well stupid. You say things like, why don't they
Speaker 1: understand that are bad at doing stuff? Well, there is
Speaker 1: an answer, but you're not gonna like it. And this
Speaker 1: answer doesn't just apply to people you think of as dumb.
Speaker 1: It applies to everyone on earth, including you and me.
Speaker 1: It's not a matter of intelligence, necessarily a difficult thing
Speaker 1: to measure, but it is related to competence, the ability
Speaker 1: to do something well. In A psychologist named David Dunning
Speaker 1: and his grad assistant Justin Krueger tested a group of
Speaker 1: students in several categories, the ability to think logically, to
Speaker 1: write chromatically, and to spot funny jokes. They also asked
Speaker 1: the students to rate their skills in these categories, that is,
Speaker 1: when they notice something weird. The people scoring below average
Speaker 1: on these tests were just incompetent in these categories. They
Speaker 1: also didn't know they were incompetent. And here's the kicker.
Speaker 1: The less competent they were, the more competent they ranked themselves.
Speaker 1: This is a fun nomenon called illusory superiority. This is
Speaker 1: a cognitive bias wherein people tend to rate their own
Speaker 1: abilities as above average. Multiple studies have proven this effect
Speaker 1: in everything from firearms to college debates and med students
Speaker 1: opinions of their interviewing skills. It doesn't seem to matter
Speaker 1: what specific skill we're talking about. The less a person
Speaker 1: knows about it, the more likely they are to overestimate
Speaker 1: their knowledge. While Dunning and Krueger popularize this effect in
Speaker 1: modern society, they weren't the first people to notice the
Speaker 1: relationship between confidence, modesty, and skill. Philosophers throughout the ages
Speaker 1: have contemplated this idea, like Bertrand Russell, who famously wrote
Speaker 1: The Trouble with the World is that the stupid are
Speaker 1: cock sure and the intelligent are full of doubt. And
Speaker 1: here's another weird thing. People with actual competency are likely
Speaker 1: to actually underestimate their abilities. Researchers believe this modesty comes
Speaker 1: because competent people are more aware of how much they
Speaker 1: don't actually know, as well as their field in general.
Speaker 1: They also consistently overestimate the performance ability of others. It
Speaker 1: all goes back to one primary thing, meta cognition. Meta
Speaker 1: Cognition is the ability to be aware of and understand
Speaker 1: your own thought process. In other words, the ability to
Speaker 1: think about how you think. People tend to evaluate themselves
Speaker 1: through what Dunning and Krueger called a top down approach.
Speaker 1: Instead of objectively measuring their performance, people start with their
Speaker 1: preconceived notions of their skill and use that belief to
Speaker 1: evaluate their performance. Check out the Brainstuff channel on YouTube
Speaker 1: and for more on this and thousands of other topics,
Speaker 1: visit how stuff Works dot com.