A recent study, published in the December 1999 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, found that incompetent people don’t know they are. So if you’re feeling pretty wonderful about yourself this week, you may want to keep that urge in check.
The researchers, Justin Kruger and David Dunning from the department of psychology at Cornell University, concluded that incompetent people tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in social and intellectual domains and that this overestimation occurs because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden.
“Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices,” the study said, “but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it.” In four studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. For example, subjects who had scored in the 12th percentile guessed that they had scored in the 62nd percentile, while those who scored in the highest percentile significantly underestimated their own scores.
The study results certainly mirror my perceptions about people. Those who tend to doubt themselves a little bit often try harder. Like the Avis motto, “We’re No. 2, so we try harder.”
On the other hand, I’m not sure I would agree with the authors when they call this a burden for the incompetent. Sure, they’re no good at anything and they are the last ones to realize it, but what about the rest of us. What about the burden on the competent who have to take up the slack? Blissfully incompetent sounds like a stress-free way to go through life, and you just know they’re going to live a long time. Or, maybe it only seems that way.
Competence is a wonderful attribute to have, but when the choice is between competence and luck, I’ll take luck any day. That’s exactly what happened to us with this month’s Product Development feature. We were in the middle of researching the story on Third Wave Technology and their hot new non-PCR Invader technology when PE Biosystems of Foster City, Calif., came calling with $300 million to spend. Isn’t it great when nice guys and gals who work hard turn into millionaires overnight? Bonus: Third Wave is located in Madison, Wis., not Silicon Valley.
Our Disease Management section on the heart, sponsored by an educational grant from the Diagnostics Division of Bayer Corporation, is full of informative interviews with experts in the field of chest pain management and cardiac markers. With the avalanche of new research and new tests coming out, it can be difficult to keep on top of this field.
Speaking of the top, on behalf of the CLP staff, I’d like to thank you, our readers and advertisers, for helping us achieve No. 1 ranking in 1999 from PERQ/HCI of Princeton, N.J. Each year, PERQ totals up the number of column inches of advertising space in all the lab publications on the market. CLP was ranked No. 1 in advertising market share in 1999, and we couldn’t have done it without you. As always, your questions, comments and suggestions are always welcome via phone and e-mail.
Lest that sound too confident, and thus, incompetent, you should know that we’re still trying as hard as if we were No. 2.
Coleen Curran
Editor
