DrV’s Newsletter, Notes, Essays, Articles, Videos, and Book Chapters

DrV’s Newsletter, Notes, Essays, Articles, Videos, and Book Chapters

Share this post

DrV’s Newsletter, Notes, Essays, Articles, Videos, and Book Chapters
DrV’s Newsletter, Notes, Essays, Articles, Videos, and Book Chapters
Dunning-Kruger effect/syndrome

Dunning-Kruger effect/syndrome

Some people are "too stupid to know how stupid they are", and they actually become more incompetent and self-defending with additional education/information

Dr Alex Kennerly Vasquez's avatar
Dr Alex Kennerly Vasquez
Oct 13, 2022
∙ Paid
8

Share this post

DrV’s Newsletter, Notes, Essays, Articles, Videos, and Book Chapters
DrV’s Newsletter, Notes, Essays, Articles, Videos, and Book Chapters
Dunning-Kruger effect/syndrome
4
Share
The 25+ best The dunning kruger effect ideas on Pinterest | Quotes for ...

I am sure that most adults have heard of this phrase “Dunning-Kruger” so here I will provide more detail and the original publication.

PDF of Kruger and Dunning, "Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments" in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1999 is provided below, at the end of this page

Childhood friendships don’t necessarily translate into Adult Friendships—nor should we expect them to.

I had a recent negative experience with a long-term friend that didn’t actually surprise me because I have observed how he has changed over the past few years. My friend had gone from being somewhat of a lifelong drifter (albeit a pleasant drifter) to someone who now thinks of himself as being highly successful, accomplished, and elite because he married someone with big money. His behavior finally became unacceptable even if it was perfectly predictable given his trajectory, so I ended the friendship, blocked his phone number, and called it done: thanks for the memories.

My friend had become Dunning-Kruger on many levels, because he thought that marrying someone who had made money meant that he was capable of same (benign error) and that this catapulted him into the social-intellectual-financial elite of humanity (bigger error) and that he could now mistreat people at his whim (dangerous error). Like I’ve said before among other lessons learned, “In societies that praise money, rich people are too-commonly assumed to be good, pure, and truthful and somehow ‘better than other people.’”

I learned that childhood friendships don’t necessarily translate into adult friendships—nor should we expect them to. For childhood friendships, we are mostly looking for fun/companionship and acceptance, while adult relationships are more complex because our needs, wants, expectations, and standards have changed at 50 years-of-age from what they were at 15 years-of-age.

Of course, I reflected on the events for several days, and tried to understand how what happened fit into my understanding of fallacies, mistakes, etc. His behavior actually did not fit either fallacy (see recent video) nor stupidity per se (see previous model, now updated below), so that I had to review the Dunning-Kruger syndrome/effect and also update the diagram provided toward the end of this page.

Amazon.com: Mark Twain- Funny Quotes Wall Art-"Never Argue With Stupid ...

Dunning-Kruger = arrogance + incompetence

Some people demonstrate *unintentional* incompetence coupled with an inability to learn from their mistakes and from additional training/education; these people are commonly referred to has having Dunning-Kruger Syndrome (or demonstrating the Dunning-Kruger effect) per the classic 1999 publication by Kruger and Dunning, "Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments" in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology which showed that:

  1. some people are "too stupid to know how stupid they are"

  2. they actually become more incompetent with additional training/education because their ego defenses block them from integrating new information and trap them in cycles of defending their previous positions and actions

In summary: Dunning-Kruger = arrogance + incompetence/ignorance, especially incompetence/ignorance that gets worse with time, which is the opposite of what occurs with normal-healthy people, who learn more skills and information with time and who generally improve their abilities to self-reflect and self-correct with time

Dunning Kruger Effect - Matznerd

LEVEL ONE—FRUSTRATING: In normal circumstances with someone who is Dunning-Kruger but not psychopathic/antisocial/violent, their Dunning-Kruger is something of a frustrating or almost-laughable inconvenience—we don’t have to accept their behavior but at least the danger level is low. The combination of arrogance + inability to reflect/integrate = highly frustrating for everyone other than the chief actor.

“Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias whereby people with low ability, expertise, or experience regarding a certain type of a task or area of knowledge tend to overestimate their ability or knowledge.” Wikipedia

LEVEL TWO—MANIPULATIVE: But what if that same person with Dunning-Kruger syndrome is also mildly psychopathic? They will probably be manipulative and socially/emotionally harmful to others. If you see this combination, then the best advice is to leave, move, get away.

LEVEL THREE—DANGEROUS: What if they are more psychopathic? Then they are a life-and-death physical threat to others. The combination of arrogance + inability to reflect/integrate + willingness to be violent/ruthless = recipe for disaster. In fact, if you look at the basic profile of most serial killers, their psychographic pattern is exactly entitlement + un(self)reflective + ruthless. If you want to see a real-world example of this combination, you can see several news items and video documentaries on Daniel Wozniak, the charismatic actor who became a double killer simply in order to pay for a short vacation with his wife.

Perhaps a sequence of severity is as follows:

  1. Ignorance can be innocent.

  2. Incompetence is problematic, because by definition it means that someone is underperforming for a role that they could and should be prepared for; the team/organization/nation/society is being held back, retarded, or harmed because of someone’s underperformance.

  3. Stupidity among adults is commonly self-serving in some way (which might be relatively/temporarily benign) or it may be strategic, in which case it is intentional and therefore designed to harm other people.

  4. Dunning-Kruger is reckless and non(self)correcting, so it is either going to be a small problem or a big problem, depending on the situation and the person’s tendency for ruthlessness.

Cycle4 Dr V Healthy Thinking Notes Logic Fallacies
1.37MB ∙ PDF file
Download
Download
DrV’s Newsletter, Notes, Essays, Articles, Videos, and Book Chapters
Appreciating Strategic* Stupidity (*Potemkin = façade, coverup) [PDF, images, video]
Today’s post will detail the concept of strategic/Potemkin stupidity and follows yesterday’s post that provided a connoisseur’s introduction to Gaslighting, Dogwhistling, Stupidity, Naiveté, and BS. Understanding this concept {strategic stupidity} and gaining ability to articulate it, identify it, and describe it provides us with an empowering liberation…
Read more
3 years ago · 6 likes · Dr Alex Kennerly Vasquez

Share

DrV’s Newsletter, Notes, Essays, Articles, Videos, and Book Chapters
ELEVEN LESSONS that I learned from the lies and deception from university presidents, conference organizers, and supposedly “successful” businesspeople
In societies that praise and deify capitalism (making money) and ascensionism (“upward” social-financial progression, which eventually attains a pseudo-spiritual status), rich and positioned people are assumed to be good, pure, and truthful. Most people would be shocked at the level of incompetence, criminality, and (self)deception displayed by supposedly “successful” people at the higher ranks of academia, education, and business…
Read more
3 years ago · 12 likes · Dr Alex Kennerly Vasquez
DrV’s Newsletter, Notes, Essays, Articles, Videos, and Book Chapters
Spontaneous 90min VIDEO (Reviewedx3, Editedx1) Logic, Effective Arguments, Critical Thinking, Bridging Knowledge Gaps, examples from Dr Anthony "Fallacy"
"I love the brave: but it is not enough to be a swordsman, - one must also know when to use swordsmanship! And often it is greater bravery to keep quiet and pass by." - Friedrich Nietzsche New video recorded yesterday (8Oct2022) covering a range of topics and examples related to…
Read more
3 years ago · 5 likes · Dr Alex Kennerly Vasquez

Share

DrV’s Newsletter, Notes, Essays, Articles, Videos, and Book Chapters
Connoisseur's Introductory Circumlocutions on Gaslighting, Dogwhistling, Stupidity, Naiveté, and Bullshit
For several reasons that will be discussed herein (and hereafter), I would like to use this thread to review some important definitions, facts and context for words that I think need a deeper level of appreciation for their importance in our modern times…
Read more
3 years ago · 7 likes · Dr Alex Kennerly Vasquez

My highlighted annotated PDF of Kruger and Dunning, "Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments" in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1999 is provided below for convenience (the article is also widely available on the internet)

This post is for paid subscribers

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Dr Alex Kennerly Vasquez
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share