f r e s h s t a r t
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Too dumb to know it?
Lindsay pointed out an article that she found on an improv message board of all places, "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments."
From the intro:
"People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusion and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it."
What is your reaction to this idea, and what do you think it says about you?
Related side note: I have a tendency to not believe people who project too much confidence, partly because I get a gut feeling that the cockiness is trying to cover something up. If someone speaks in a way that encourages their ideas to be either questioned or affirmed, I trust it more. In court we don't like admitting testimony that we can't cross-examine. Some real life situations call for the same scrutiny.
15:04 2 comments
Comments:
This completely makes sense, and makes me think of quite a few people. You have to distinguish, however, between cockiness and confidence. I think we sometimes erroneously call cocky people overly confident. In fact those with self-confidence issues are the ones who act most cocky. Makes sense? Need I mention names to illustrate with a prime example? :)
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