The Funniest Yet The Most Sensible Bias

Source: Creative Market

It's a fine sunny day. You go out. You see a group of people. 20 of them, infact. They seem to be discussing something interesting. 

You can't stop yourself. You walk towards them. You see the group is comprised of the most ridiculous guys of your class. 

You decide to turn the other way around, but then something in their conversation catches your ears.

They are talking about you.

You are furious, but at the same time, interested. Who doesn't want to know what others think about them? And as you listen quietly from the corner, you realize they are bad-mouthing you.

They are 20 in number. You are one. Being good at maths, you decide the numbers to not be in your favor, and you quietly leave the scene. 

On your way back, you quietly comtemplate what they said, and even agree to them, despite knowing that they aren't a better judge of your character than you are.

This is the Dunning-Kruger Effect at work. To summarize it in a short sentence: 

Intelligent people seem to underestimate their abilities while the stupid ones tend to overestimate theirs.

Sounds funny, right?

But the number of social implications this effect has is astounding. 

For example, quiet people are usually associated with power and mystery. We naturally assume introverts to be more intelligent than they let on, and the talkative ones to be the stupidest.

Most of the powerful people say much without saying much (if you know what I mean). Most of their body language is restricted, but it is this restriction that makes us think they are intelligent. 

Socrates very wisely said, that inspite his knowledge of everything, the fact was that he knew nothing. This not only shows his humility, but also shows the Dunning-Kruger Effect at work here; he knew what he knew was negligible compared to what he didn't knew.

Source: nudgeconsulting.com

And in sharp contrast to this come the great self-proclaimed "experts" of today, who see every short miscommunication as treason and every small attack as a world war precursor. We listen to them, thinking they know everything, but the ones who actually know everything are silently playing with the others, and we never come to know this.

So, next time you doubt yourself, be happy, maybe you are more intelligent than you think you are (maybe).