by Camille Gooderham Campbell I’m not making this up. From Wikipedia: The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly rating their ability much higher than average. This bias is attributed to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their mistakes.[1] Actual competence may weaken self-confidence, as competent individuals may falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding. As Kruger and Dunning conclude, “the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others” (p. 1127).[2] I have no doubt that this interesting effect applies to every area of life, but I was particularly struck by its relevance for writers. Above all, for your own sanity, try not to spend a lot of time thinking about how your abilities stack up against everyone else’s.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 14:58:56 +0000
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