Empty vessels make most noise
That’s my very simple translation of the Kruger Dunning Effect (Kruger and Dunning, 1999)
In researching self awareness, it was impossible not to be drawn to the description of what it is not, as well as what it is.
The Kruger Dunning effect says that a lack of ability causes bad performance and also an inability to recognise that bad performance. In the study, they found that the bottom quartile of people who completed a logical reasoning test estimated that they’d scored at about the 12th percentile, when they’d actually scored at the 62nd. P
Wikipedia’s page about it is really interesting and has lots of detail. Look it up here.
I see the Kruger Dunning Effect around me everywhere: Brexit, Trumpism, COVID deniers, Holocaust deniers…. I could go on…
It suggests to me that self awareness and intelligence is very closely connected and that you cannot become one without having the other. There’s also a close relationship with humility and self awareness too.
Maybe it’s best to think of it all as a continuum of self awareness with different elements of knowledge feeding in like a slip road on to a motorway…. like a self awareness super highway!