WHY PEOPLE FAIL TO RECOGNIZE THEIR OWN INCOMPETENCE

Dunning,

D., Johnson, K., Ehrlinger, J., & Kruger, J. (2003). Why People Fail to Recognize Their Own Incompetence. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12(3), 83-87. https://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/comm/kjohnson/Lab/Publications_ files/Dunning,%20Johnson,%20et%20al.%20%28200%230

Most people have difficulty realising and accepting themselves, especially of their incompetence. The question that follows this statement is that are they even well-aware of its existence in the first place? To know one’s deficiencies is also considered a skill, but does it come naturally for everyone? Skills need practice. People live their daily lives dealing and negotiating with problems and solutions all the time. Those experiences suppose to be a reflection on this regard for people to develop their self-perception and attain some idea of their limitations. However, researches suggested otherwise.

Recent research conducted in the department of psychology, Cornwell University, New York and the department of psychology, University of Illinois, Illinois, revealed that students with the poorest performance significantly overestimated their scores when being asked to rate their performance right after they finished the exam without knowing their actual scores at the time. A similar result also happened with the experiment by Kruger and Dunning in 1999 that allowed participants to estimate their performance in logical and grammatical tests and the ability to spot funny jokes. The bottomranked performers believed they had done remarkably better than they actually did. The list of experiments with matching outcomes goes on. In 2003, Ehrlinger et al tried offering $100 to participants who could give an accurate estimate of their performance. The result insisted that poor performers still overestimated themselves, which implied that showing self-misconception for a sake of reputation was not the case. Poor performers strictly had no idea about their incompetence.

What if the main problem here is not only the incompetence itself? Ignorance of it is the key. People with a lack of knowledge of what is right or wrong will never be able to be in control of their quality, left alone to have an abillity to judge other’s. These people fail to observe their own thought processes, or megacognition, which is the door to self-improvement.

In 1999, Kruger and Dunning conducted the test based on a hypothesis that after incompetent people are taught useful skills, they will no longer be unskilled. They will be competent to differentiate right or wrong. They divided participants. Some of them later received a practical on how to solve the specific logical problems. It was concluded that poor performers who had been educated earlier would rate their performance more accurate, which means having more knowledge, less ignorance, produces more precise realisation because it provides a more realistic perception of one’s self.

For top-ranked performers, life is not perfect either. They had a deceived idea that everyone had higher performance than them. This resulted in having less confidence as opposed to people with low performance. This very recent research also showed a slight implication of this notion. The cure of this issue was to let them reviewed others’ test answers. It worked as reflection that allowed them to realise their true position. Although, this fashion did not work vice versa because unskilled incompetent people unsuccessfully recognised mistakes. People initially start rating their performance by using their broad idea on things they are good or bad at, then they would apply the impression into smaller exercises under those umbrella subjects. This way, their performance estimation in smaller exercises can be misguided by the perceptions of performance of their collective big picture rather than specific approaches. This can eventually cause crucial consequences in life decisions, such as education or career path. Ultimately, how can people hold accurate self-views? Incompetent people who remained unskilled and lack knowledge seemed to never reach the point of self-awareness. They might live with their deficiencies unconsciously in both intellectual and social domains forever. This recent research concluded that in order to self-improve, external elements and systematic methods were still required to work as a reflector. ■

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