← all facts
learning
You are most confident when you know the least.
The 1999 study found that individuals performing in the lowest quartiles of certain tasks significantly overestimate their competence because they lack the metacognitive awareness to recognize their own errors.
The claim relies on a popular 'confidence curve' narrative that does not appear in the Kruger and Dunning 1999 research.
Your certainty is a symptom of your ignorance.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Kruger and Dunning, 1999
- What the check found
- The original study focuses on the inability of the unskilled to recognize their lack of skill, not a universal curve of confidence that fluctuates as expertise is gained.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.