Dunning-Kruger effect
Overconfidence from ignorance
The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with limited knowledge or skill in a domain overestimate their own competence, while those with genuine expertise tend to underestimate theirs.
Named after psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger, who documented the phenomenon in 1999, it helps explain why the least qualified people are often the most confident.
Classic Dunning-Kruger effect—he took one coding class and now thinks he can build an app.
- overconfidenceUnjustified certainty in oneself
- cognitive biasSystematic deviation from rationality
- hubrisRuinous excessive confidence
- self-serving biasCrediting yourself for wins, others for losses
- self-assessmentEvaluating your own performance
arrogance · learning curve · metacognition · pontification · valley · false expertise · unknown unknowns · confirmation bias · peak · ignorance · self-deception · armchair expert · bias · bluster · beginner · foolishness · novice · clueless
- cognitive biasesconfirmation bias, anchoring bias, negativity bias, optimism bias, recency bias
- biasescognitive bias, confirmation bias, implicit bias, unconscious bias, selection bias
- perception errorsmisperception, illusion, optical illusion, visual distortion, blind spot
- theories & lawssupply and demand, law of demand, law of supply, Parkinson's law, Peter principle
- mind-bending sciencequantum entanglement, time dilation, relativity, black holes, dark matter
- metacognitionmetacognition, self-awareness, introspection, knowing what you know, self-assessment
Dunning-Kruger effectimpostor syndrome
Feeling undeserving of success
self-awareness · intellectual humility · self-doubt · underconfidence · epistemic humility
Dunning-Kruger effectintellectual humility
Awareness of cognitive fallibility
epistemic humility · beginner's mind · humility · open-mindedness · wisdom