There is an interesting psychological hypothesis known as the Dunning-Kruger effect which describes the often seen phenomenon of incompetent people being unaware of their own incompetence and so wildly overestimating their abilities. This can also be described as ‘illusory superiority’ and may go some way to explaining the bizarre annual event of entirely talentless people auditioning for the X-factor. The phenomenon can lead to an almost delusional level of self-confidence and can also cause these same individuals to deride the abilities of people who are plainly more competent or qualified.
Dunning and Kruger demonstrated this effect amongst undergraduate psychology students by giving them various assessments and then asking them to estimate where the score they received would rank them in the class. The incompetent students consistently overestimated their rank whereas the competent students consistently underestimated their rank.
This effect is demonstrated par excellence by the anti-vaxxers who believe that, having mastered the pronunciation of a couple so sciencey- sounding words, they have the ability to refute centuries of scientific research and evidence.
Most of us have experienced discussions or arguments with people who will belligerently persevere in making their point despite evidently being absolutely ignorant on the topic about which they are talking. This is one of life’s greatest frustrations. Personally I have found learning about the Dunning-Kruger effect provides me some relief in these situations. At least I can console myself with the fact that the more convinced my opponent seems of their own rightness, the more they are in fact just demonstrating their own ignorance.
The opposite of this is the ‘Impostor Syndrome’. Here the competent individual is filled with doubts and struggles to attribute their successes to their own hard work and talents. There is a feeling that success has somehow been a fluke, or that success has been achieved by defrauding the world at large. Filled with anxiety and dread, they get temporary relief from the next success only for anxiety levels and guilt to ratchet up as they feel themselves plunging ever deeper into their imagined deception.
Impostor syndrome is widespread in the medical profession. This is not surprising really as in our own heads we remain the eighteen year olds who used to turn up to anatomy lectures still drunk from the night before. How then can we possibly hold the responsibility for looking after other people’s lives in our deceiving hands?
Socrates actually summed the situation up quite nicely by saying ‘the more I know, the more I realise I know nothing’. Just like Socrates, our Impostor friends throw themselves into their field of expertise but the more they learn, the more fraudulent they feel in the role of expert as they become increasingly aware of the uncertainties and nuance that surrounds every subject.
As ever, social media has the capacity to make both situations much worse. As the Dunning-Krugers bang away in their own echo chambers, ever more convinced of their correctness, the Imposter Syndromers sit quietly and nurture their own self-loathing as they scroll through the apparently hard-worn successes of others that are proudly displayed on social media profiles.
Apparently one of the answers to this problem is to actually talk to one another. For those filled with self-doubt, learning that many others feel the same way and having the opportunity to calibrate your competence against that of others is quite helpful. For the Dunning-Krugers, perhaps actually listening to someone from outside their own ignorant bubble may lead them along the path to Socratic self-awareness.
But we live in a world of entrenched views. Discussion and compromise are seemingly in short supply. You must either be for or against whether the subject is Brexit, Trump, or a Covid lockdown. Where then will the Impostors find their solace and the Dunning-Krugers find there wisdom? Uniting America is Biden’s big challenge, but perhaps we all face the challenge of working out how we all unite with one another a bit more amiably.
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