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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPsychology Today: The Dunning-Kruger Effect May Help Explain Trump's Support
A new study suggests some people grossly overestimate their political knowledge.
In the past, some prominent psychologists have explained President Donald Trumps unwavering support by alluding to a well-established psychological phenomenon known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. The effect is a type of cognitive bias, where people with little expertise or ability assume they have superior expertise or ability. This overestimation occurs as a result of the fact that they dont have enough knowledge to know they dont have enough knowledge. This simple but loopy concept has been demonstrated dozens of times in well-controlled psychology studies and in a variety of contexts. However, until now, the effect had not been studied in one of the most obvious and important realmspolitical knowledge.
A new study published in the journal Political Psychology, carried out by the political scientist Ian Anson at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, not only found that the Dunning-Kruger effect applies to politics, it also appears to be exacerbated when partisan identities are made more salient. In other words, those who score low on political knowledge tend to overestimate their expertise even more when greater emphasis is placed on political affiliation.
Anson told PsyPost that he became increasingly interested in the effect after other academics were discussing its potential role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election on social media. I follow a number of political scientists who marveled at the social media pundit class seeming display of Dunning-Kruger-ish tendencies in their bombastic coverage of the election. However, speculation by scientists does not always translate into statistically-significant findings, so Anson began thinking of ways to experimentally test what he described as a very serious accusation.
More: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201808/the-dunning-kruger-effect-may-help-explain-trumps-support?fbclid=IwAR3apgHPq2gK9FYGvaII7RM-6c-rpD1QuOm173oZBnL0RTVqNNEVka0Tht4
In more simple terms:
unblock
(52,200 posts)They think that makes them more informed than people who try to learn actual facts instead.
renate
(13,776 posts)And people have to have a certain amount of self knowledge to guard against it, which Fox viewers cant possibly have or they wouldnt be Fox viewers.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Charlotte Little
(658 posts)He thinks he is such the expert. I love him like life itself, but when it comes to politics, he's as dumb as a damn rock. And it's willful ignorance on steroids.
I've begged my mother to break the remote control so that he can't watch Fox (Hannity in particular), but she won't do it. But I may when I go home this Christmas. Oh, that trip's gonna be so much fun.
Liberal Insights
(109 posts)in my humble opinion, the reason that Donald Trump is so attractive to people who know almost nothing about the issues involved in politics is that they see the same ignorant views in him that they possess themselves; and in applauding his stupidity, they are applauding their own.