The Dunning-Kruger Effect
People overestimate skills they aren’t good at. Skilled people underestimate how good they are.
Have you ever been asked during an interview:
On a scale of one through ten, how would you rate yourself at this?
The interviewer assumes the candidate’s responds is an accurate evaluation of their skill set. But, the interviewee’s response suffers from the Dunning-Kruger Effect.
The Dunning-Kruger Effect is a cognitive bias where the unskilled rate their ability higher than the average while competent people undervalue their ability. Psychologists never studied the phenomena until David Dunning and Justin Kruger published their research, Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments in 1999.
The reason unskilled people suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect is that their own incompetence makes them unable to rate themselves. They are evaluating themselves with a skill they don’t understand. Their lack of understanding creates a situation where they are incapable of doing a proper self evaluation. They can’t recognize their lack of skill. The unskilled overvalue their abilities.
But, the situation becomes puzzling once the unskilled person becomes knowledgeable. A knowledgeable person recognizes the limitations of their abilities. Their better understanding of a subject makes them undervalue their own ability. They assume everyone is working from the same knowledge base they are. The more you learn, the more you understand you don’t know much. The skilled undervalue their abilities.
While interviewing, if you ask How would you rate yourself question, realize the people who rate themselves high know less about the subject than a candidate who rates themselves at lower level.
This doesn’t just happen with knowledge based skills either. Dunning and Kruger noticed it happened with humor, grammar, and logic.
Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd.
I propose to stop asking candidates to rate their own abilities. That’s what you are their for. If you decide to continue asking this question, keep the Dunning-Kruger effect in mind. The candidate’s response will misrepresent the candidates skill set and ability.
Originally published at bretthard.in on January 22, 2013.
