(No One Cares About) The Dunning-Kruger Effect

One of the more interesting (and CRUSHINGLY DEPRESSING) parts of cognitive psychology is the examination into the many forms of cognitive bias that human beings predictably express. One of my favorites (perhaps due to the availability heuristic fueled by the keynote lecture I saw David Dunning deliver at a psychology conference I attended in January) is the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which is explained here:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/dunning-kruger-effect

Here's another explanation of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, but in video form:

Here's David Dunning, currently a professor at the University of Michigan, talking about some real-life examples of the Dunning-Kruger Effect in action:

Here is a post from Psychology Today outlining 12 common biases, including the Dunning-Kruger Effect:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/thoughts-thinking/201809/12-common-biases-affect-how-we-make-everyday-decisions

After some deliberation, I posted all this content into an announcement in my online PSY 161 class to illustrate some of the concepts in the chapter we were currently covering. Because Dunning used Trump as an example, I was prepared for some anonymous discussion board posts from members of the Cult of Trump excoriating me, but I forgot the one cardinal rule of my online classes:

NO

ONE

FUCKING

CARES

Sometimes, I imagine that I live in an academic world where the information I provide will produce a seismic shift in how students perceive themselves and the world. But for those students, it's just another Wednesday. Talk about cognitive bias on my part, right?

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"The Silver Gun" by Robert Palmer (1983)

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