The Dunning-Kruger Delusion: Why We Think We’re Smarter Than We Are (and How to Fix It 75 Tips)
Dangers of Overestimating Why People Overestimate Their Abilities Overcoming
In this article, you will learn the following
-57 Signs to identify people who overestimate their abilities, skills, strengths, and expertise — check how many apply to you
-75 Tips on How to stop exaggerating, overestimating, and How to Avoid the Dunning-Kruger Effect
-22 Tips How to deal The People with Superiority Complex Who Brag and Boast -THE PSYCHOLOGY OF BRAGGING
- List of 26 Articles — for developing better clarity on How to Deal with and Recognize
-Why is it that people who have — poor and below-average intelligence, Low-ability, low-competence, poor-education, poor-skilled — tend to overestimate their capacities, abilities & intelligence
-WHILE — the gifted, talented, smart & intelligent people — underestimate their intelligence and capabilities
IT IS BECAUSE People who overestimate their own abilities and intelligence — HAVE — deep-rooted emotional insecurities with their in-built feelings of shame, guilt, and embarrassment because of their inadequacies [in their education, social status, looks, the color of skin, weaknesses, lack of knowledge, skills, awareness, and expertise] and lack of any meaningful accomplishments in their life.
Most of the people who overestimate their own abilities and intelligence generally possess a LOSER-Mindset — AND THEIR — Ignorance more frequently begets over-confidence than knowledge.
I call it the Bruce-Lee effect.
When I was in my teens in the 70s — I watched the movie Enter the Dragon and after watching it for just 2 hours — when I came out — I was looking for people who might attack me and was feeling high with the expectations and confidence of beating these bad people just like Bruce-Lee did in the movie.
If you have ever watched a real expert who after decades of practice and struggles has reached a level of excellence that whatever they do seems so easy to do.
In my aforesaid post-movie experience — I, without any idea about martial arts and street-fighting, was ready to beat the hardened criminals.
People with this disorder not only perform poorly but are also unlikely to learn, grow, and overcome this detrimental illness.
Because of feelings of inferiority and inadequacies and their obvious lacunae — these people also develop a greater & stronger need to become famous, rich, and powerful.
When their lack of confidence in their competence terrifies them and because they can’t get what they are dreaming about — they start creating a façade of knowing everything -– they choose to pretend to be smart or skilled rather than risk looking inadequate.
Even smart people can be affected by this malaise due to their EGO.
Intelligence is a gift that you have BUT could never substitute learning, nurturing, developing, and mastering any skill and expertise.
Genuine experts in one area may mistakenly believe that their intelligence and knowledge carry over into other areas.
You might be a brilliant management professor BUT may fail in real business situations.
You might be a great engineer with a fantastic grasp of your domain BUT you might be a poor people manager.
You might be fantastic in mathematics YET might not be able to read and understand financial numbers.
You may find many people describe themselves as above average [because they just don’t have the ability to examine themselves objectively] — during conversation AND In tests like — behavior-assessments, self-appraisals, logical reasoning, emotional intelligence, aptitude, psychometrics, financial knowledge.
This effect can also be spotted among competent individuals with a seemingly solid knowledge base.
The opposite of this phenomenon is called imposter syndrome — People who have this disorder are plagued by self-doubts and constantly feel like frauds who will be unmasked any moment — READ MY PREVIOUS BLOG on imposter syndrome -66 Tips Overcome Imposter Syndrome Are You a Highly Successful Leader Who Feels Like a Fraud.
Many of the Indian-Politicians [especially the current in-power ones as well as their Blind followers or AndhaBhakts], the Indian-Bureaucrats, the Indian Celebrity-Babas/Godmen/ Godwomen, along with the high-level Con-Artists, Frauds, Charlatans — fall under the category of people who might overestimate their own abilities and intelligence.
This is a cognitive bias and fallacy as well as a disorder.
A person with this disorder — may rely too heavily on the very first piece of information [because of their complete lack of knowledge in the subject] and accept those without verifying and fact-checking.
You would find an unbelievably large mass of population [could be even 70%] of India suffering from this disorder.
Almost all of them are qualified “magna cum laude” — graduates, post-graduates, and PhDs of so many Universities of Excellence — LIKE THOSE OF — WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Other Social-media universities.
Let me elaborate to clarify a few of my aforesaid statements.
Say a large mass of people [most of the 70% of the population] — have never read or have any idea about what is written in the Indian VEDAs.
Then they read some propaganda material- that all the Western scientific discoveries and inventions are taken from VEDAs [or any such cockamamie theories propagated by the cunning politicians, bureaucrats, and religious persons — for their own ulterior motives and agendas] — in the tutorial of the universities mentioned above.
Then you will find these graduates start preaching the same to others — without even trying to verify, fact-check, read, understand, and learn the facts and reality.
This happens mostly to the people who are at the bottom-most levels of knowledge, and education or with limited or zero knowledge or idea about any area.
But I get amazed — when some people who are either at a director level OR have qualified from the globally admired Indian institutions like ISRO/IITs/IIMs — start peddling myths while IGNORING the science, data, and facts available — especially which is so basic that even a 10th standard good student can understand the absurdity.
Why some people are simply too dense to recognize their shortcomings — well it is because when people are incompetent — their incompetence robs them of the needed mental ability to realize just how inept they are.
The morons, stupid and jerks — don’t understand how impossibly difficult it is to suffer them -fools are blind to their own foolishness.
This is due to their lack of Metacognition which is an awareness of one’s thought processes and an understanding of the patterns — and as a result, they reach mistaken conclusions and make regrettable errors, but their incompetence [or being brainwashed] — robs them of the ability to realize it.
Why do people think they know more than they do -This could be due to gaining a small amount of knowledge in an area about which they were completely ignorant earlier — which may make people feel as though they have become an expert.
Few people may seem highly competent and persuasive due to their apparent confidence — and when they exaggerate with certainty — most of their blind followers believe them — all these people are often driven by a desire for status and power and the need to appear smarter].
People who overestimate themselves frequently may overextend themselves beyond the limits of absurdity.
The incompetence of these people blesses these people with — inappropriate confidence — buoyed by something that feels to them like knowledge.
Why people brag — people may brag overtly or covertly and talk about themselves — to overcome the uncomfortable feelings of feeling inferior.
There is a principle called the Dunning-Kruger Effect — where people wrongly overestimate their knowledge or ability.
This Dunning-Kruger effect can have a profound impact on what people believe, the decisions they make, and the actions they take.
57 Signs to identify people who overestimate their abilities, skills, strengths, and expertise — check how many apply to you
1. In most situations — They tend to feel that They are right
2. In most situations — when others offer these people their suggestions — They smile and listen BUT internally They feel superior as They believe that what they know, and their solution are more effective
3. They take other’s suggestions and feedback as criticism and ignore them completely
4. Look at those areas in their life where They feel 100 percent confident — these are the biggest danger
5. They claim almost all the time that they are correct, and that other’s opinions are wrong, uninformed, and stupid [although in most instances They are clueless and don’t have any idea about the matter in question]
6. They prattle on and on — blithely oblivious of their ignorance 7. They find it difficult to understand intelligent satire, jokes, and humor
8. They may accept the cynicism, satire, jokes, humor — at face value — thus misunderstanding where there was no need
9. They feel that They are an excellent judge of character and people
10. If They fail an exam — They feel that They deserve a much higher score
11. They almost always feel that They are superior to others in — knowledge, smartness, intelligence, skills
12. They feel that They are better, more capable, and more knowledgeable than others
13. Although their accomplishments can hardly be termed barely as average
14. They laugh when They don’t understand anything
15. They laugh when others are laughing — although They have no clue as to why others are laughing
16. They find it difficult to recognize the genuine skill and expertise of other people
17. They Fail to recognize their own mistakes and their lack the required skill
18. They always behave and feel like an expert
19. They always try to prove that They are right AND that others are wrong
20. They try to justify their claims — with mythological tales, sharing a figment of their imagination or outright lie, saying something like — doctors or scientists say that OR that They have done extensive research OR on social-media PLUS WhatsApp and Facebook posts
21. They use A heuristic approach to problem-solving that is not fully optimized, perfected, validated, or rationalized
22. They try to show patterns even where none exist
23. They always want to be the smartest, the most intelligent, the most popular, most powerful
24. They exaggerate by Overreacting, catastrophizing, magnifying, maximizing, overplaying, overblowing
25. They want to manipulate and take advantage of others — and use lies untruths and constructed events to achieve this goal
26. They display a grandiose sense of self-importance and entitlement
27. They have an Exaggerated all-or-nothing thinking
28. They often end up Making poor decisions
29. They avoid and resist receiving feedback
30. They form opinions based on misinformation
31. When they are in a powerful position — their overconfidence in something that they don’t know anything about -often leads to Dangerous & Disastrous consequences for others
32. People believe that they are arrogant
33. Their know-it-all attitude without any substance — makes people stop respecting, trusting, and believing them
34. They may feel the need to exaggerate their abilities because they lack confidence in their actual skills or accomplishments
35. They may fear being seen as inadequate or not measuring up to their colleagues.
36. They Exaggerate to draw attention to themselves to receive recognition and praise
37. They may believe that their accomplishments are of greatest significance — although it could be a natural phenomenon that they are claiming as their own
38. They can lay claim to other’s accomplishments as their own
39. They feel entitled to special treatment
40. They may exaggerate their abilities without even realizing they’re doing it
41. They may tend to speak without thinking — creating a foot-in-the-mouth situation — BUT — this does not bother them to invent and overstate their role or accomplishments again and again
42. They might display a superiority complex as they believe their abilities and achievements surpass those of others –to hide their low self-esteem or a sense of inferiority
43. They tend to make boastful claims that aren’t backed up by reality
44. They give excessive attention to appearance or vanity
45. They have an overly high opinion of themselves
46. They have a self-image of — supremacy or authority OR even that of being a GOD
47. They are a poor listener and display an unwillingness to listen to others
48. Their best is usually an average or mediocre
49. They may act superior to others and hold others as less worthy –to hide their feeling of inferiority
50. They acquire this superiority complex to compensate or overcompensate for areas in which they are lacking or failing
51. They display false confidence or bravado when little or no success, achievement, or talent is there
52. They brag to protect themselves from potential criticisms
53. They try to make others feel insecure by projecting their insecurities onto others by indulging in bragging
54. They boast when they are trying to showcase their accomplishments — say by — reciting their great lifestyle, elite education, or genius children’s achievements are attempts to convince themselves that they are ok
55. They might drop important names
56. Rarely, they might make self-deprecatory statements to show how humble they are
57. They may complain that things aren’t good enough– to proclaim their high standards as a way of demonstrating that they are truly better than everyone else
75 Tips on How to stop exaggerating, overestimating, and How to Avoid the Dunning-Kruger Effect
1. Develop the habit of honestly and routinely questioning your knowledge base
2. Develop the habit of challenging yourself to look for other possibilities, options, and choices — Whenever you feel certain that Your Solution and Conclusions are perfect
3. Practice looking for different perspectives — in every critical situation
4. Identify your strengths and expertise areas — use evidence to accept this by way of actual events when you succeeded in using these strengths
5. Learn to challenge yourself by becoming your own devil’s advocate — by initially assuming that your initial hypothesis might be wrong
6. Identify the areas — where you need to get external expertise
7. Learn not to accept anyone’s first offer
8. Learn not to accept anything viral — without fact-checking
9. Get into the habit of looking for patterns — instead of judging someone or someone on one incident
Read the remaining article as per the following details
This article was originally published as “75 Proven Tips to Stop Overestimating Your Abilities & Intelligence to Avoid Dunning-Kruger Delusion “ in https://successunlimited-mantra.com/index.php/blog [1st]for more than 3000+ blogs, articles and answers on creating metamorphosis in every aspect of your life — personal, professional, business, mental, emotional, social, relationships — please visit all three links http://relationshipandhappiness.com/ [2nd] and https://www.quora.com/profile/Subhashis-Banerji [3rd]
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