Dunning-Kruger effect has become the most abused and overused piece of pop psych in the history. God I wish we could just erased it from the collective vocabulary.
Honestly. Has the original paper even been replicated?
Impostor Syndrome vs. the Dunning-Kruger Effect
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Re: Impostor Syndrome vs. the Dunning-Kruger Effect
#12Dunning-Kruger effect has become the most abused and overused piece of pop psych in the history. God I wish we could just erased it from the collective vocabulary.
Imposter Syndrome isn't much better. In my experience, most "sufferers" are more likely to be in over their heads than intellectually humble. You need to be somewhat of an expert to understand your relative level in the first place.
I'm not saying people don't belong, but that the feeling of insecurity, especially among young people, is more often than not justified.
Re: Impostor Syndrome vs. the Dunning-Kruger Effect
#13I feel like some perspective needs to be applied to these popular terms. Imposter syndrome: there's a "sadness is not depression" thing going on here.
There is an actual Imposter Syndrome that afflicts people who are highly qualified/credentialed, people who have qualified for entrance into elite programs, and put in the time and effort to progress to graduation; and yet for psychological reasons, they have great self doubts about their "worth". This is akin to depression. (a third party would look at you and say "wow, you are super competent and qualified, it's terrible you feel you aren't," and no pep talk they give you is going to help you.)
Then there are bouts of insecurity and guilt whereby any of us can feel like "I fibbed on my resume and interview to get this job, and I now I'm surrounded by people who know what they are doing, I hope nobody figures out I snuck in." This is akin to sadness. (a third party would look at you and say "ha ha serves you right, but it's always fake-it-till-you-make-it, everybody feels this way to start out, just grit your teeth, you'll be fine," and that pep talk will help you.)
Everybody experiences sadness; sadness clears up and goes away. Not everybody suffers clinical depression, and it does not go away on its own.
Dunning Kruger? it's not really an Effect, it's an observation/tendency that is explained by simple logic along the lines of, "you don't know what you don't know".
Re: Impostor Syndrome vs. the Dunning-Kruger Effect
#14I think that impostor syndrome is inextricably linked with Dunning-Kruger. I believe that impostor syndrome is a lack of overconfidence in one's abilities- that implies that you have the ability to assess competence and to assess the skills needed for a job or task, and you don't default to "I know I can do it well". When you encounter a novel job or task, you don't immediately assume competence, and you will remain…
If imposter syndrome doesn’t go away with time, it is very possible the person overly focuses on knowledge/skills that are lacking but that are not required at all to perform at their job, and this can happen even when the person already is a/the top performer.
Re: Impostor Syndrome vs. the Dunning-Kruger Effect
#15Just because you have imposter syndrome doesn't mean you#re competent ;)
Sometimes I worry I'm doing imposter syndrome wrong.
Re: Impostor Syndrome vs. the Dunning-Kruger Effect
#16Dunning-Kruger effect has become the most abused and overused piece of pop psych in the history. God I wish we could just erased it from the collective vocabulary.
Regardless of whether or not it's actually true, I think there are enough people who believe it to be true that it will stick around; and people believe it to be true because they think they see examples in real life - that's why I believe it to be a useful concept and believe it is a real thing. Obviously I could be as blind, or just wrong, as anyone.
Re: Impostor Syndrome vs. the Dunning-Kruger Effect
#17Dunning-Kruger has been thoroughly debunked.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-do-you-know/2020...
https://scitechdaily.com/math-professor-debunks-the-dunning-...
Re: Impostor Syndrome vs. the Dunning-Kruger Effect
#18Dunning-Kruger effect has become the most abused and overused piece of pop psych in the history. God I wish we could just erased it from the collective vocabulary.
All popular phrases go through that phase where it is recklessly used to the point that you don't know what anyone means by it. At some point it ends up being (for some people) a pejorative that you can read simply as "I don't like it". Dunning-Kruger certainly has reached that point, you have to really dig to figure out if they're just throwing the phrase around or they're applying it in a thoughtful manner. All sor…
Indeed; to me, it seems that pejorative use of the phrase "virtue signalling" is itself an act of virtue signalling.
And now the meta-question: did I just…
Re: Impostor Syndrome vs. the Dunning-Kruger Effect
#19Dunning-Kruger effect has become the most abused and overused piece of pop psych in the history. God I wish we could just erased it from the collective vocabulary.
+1 and was looking for this comment. Pop-psych Dunning-Kruger concept is based on scant research, and the original paper doesn't even make the claim that people think it does.
IMV DKE pop-psych is popular because it enables a kind of second-order superiority complex where you can say shit like, "Research shows that everyone who thinks they're smart is actually a huge dumbass. Actually the really smart ones are the anxiety ridden imposter syndrome devs like myself!"
At least overconfidence and naked condescension required some courage. The insufferable new meta-game of superiority signalling seems to be feigned humility and hiding ego behind the affectation of "knowing how little you know."
Re: Impostor Syndrome vs. the Dunning-Kruger Effect
#20Dunning-Kruger has been thoroughly debunked. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-do-you-know/2020... https://scitechdaily.com/math-professor-debunks-the-dunning-...
> The majority of people can actually gauge their competence and knowledge accurately.
I know plenty of C-suite folks who must be in the minority then.