The Dunning-Kruger Effect and it’s Aiming to the ICU Doctors Volume 5 - Issue 2

Evangelia Michail Michailidou^1,2,3*

• ¹Intensive Medicine Department, Hippokration General Hospital, Greece
• ²Senior Student in the Department of Business Administration, University of Macedonia, Greece
• ³Masters Degree, International Medicine-Health Crisis Management, Greece

Received:June 14, 2020;   Published: June 19, 2020

Corresponding author: Evangelia Michailidou, Consultant Anesthesiologist-Intensivist, General Hospital Hippokratio of Thessaloniki, Konstantinoupoleos 46, Thessaloniki, Greece

DOI: 10.32474/SCSOAJ.2020.05.000208

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Abstract

Background: The Dunning-Kruger effect is a kind of cognitive bias in which people think that they are smarter and more capable than they are. Essentially, low-skilled people don’t have the skills needed to understand their own incompetence. The combination of poor self-awareness and low cognitive ability leads to their own abilities being overestimated.

Objective: While work analyzing Dunning-Kruger metrics clearly identifying the presence or absence of the test, the magnitude of the outcome has not been determined. Doctors can also try to address their own Dunning-Kruger impact by moving on to further study. “The result is due to the lack of expertise, and the answer to the lack of competence is to learn more abilities. “Young doctors should also be mindful of the Dunning-Kruger influence to be conscious of maintaining a sense of humility. “, as they achieve a preliminary understanding of functioning, always hang on to it like the tree of life because it’s so much work going through and overhauling. Experience teaches us to keep certain idling options in the past.

Conclusion: Doctors who want to be as effective as possible during a crisis and have their team effectively can develop the skills needed to manage the Dunning-Kruger phenomenon when times are calm and operations are normal. Further studies are needed to define education, explain variable results, and confirm clinical benefit through further analysis of the phenomenon targeted at critical care and emergencies.

Keywords: Dunning-Kruger Effect; Doctors; ICU

Keywords: ICU: Intensive Care Unit

Background

It is a cognitive condition in which people with disabilities develop an impression of superiority, erroneously believing that their cognitive abilities are greater than they really are. Dunning and Kruger related this tendency to the metaphorical failure of the unqualified to identify their own limitations and to determine their capabilities accurately. The Dunning-Kruger effect is a kind of cognitive bias in which people think that they are smarter and more capable than they are. Essentially, low-skilled people don’t have the skills needed to understand their own incompetence. The combination of poor self-awareness and low cognitive ability leads to their own abilities being overestimated. The word gives a scientific name and rationale to a query many instinctively recognize that fools are ignorant of their ignorance.

“Description of the Dunning-Kruger effect

This phenomenon is undoubtedly something we’ve witnessed in real life. Dunning and Kruger proposed that, for a specified ability, people with low skills would:

a. fail to recognize their own lack of skills
b. fail to recognize the severity of the deficiency
c. fail to accurately calculate the abilities of others
d. only after being subjected to this skill training will they understand and accept their lack of skills.

Conversely, the professional-fully conscious of the specificities and nuances of the area in which they operate, are mindful of their confusion, thereby underestimating the abilities and competencies in the sector. Unlike rivals, the underprivileged do not learn from their errors, which would improve their performance and the explanation for this is that they feel they are accountable for any mistakes as “omniscient.” Incompetent people are not only poor performers, the researchers found, they are also unable to accurately assess and consider the standard of their jobs. Incompetent people are not only poor performers, the researchers found, they are also unable to accurately assess and consider the standard of their own jobs. That’s the explanation why sometimes students who receive failing scores on exams believe they earned a much higher score. They overestimate their own knowledge and skills and are unable to recognize their performance’s poorness.

Main Text

Low performers are unable to identify other people’s levels of skill and expertise, which is part of why they often see themselves as stronger, more competent and more intelligent than others. “In many situations, ignorance does not leave people disoriented, perplexed or nervous,” David Dunning stated, “Rather, the inept are often rewarded with excessive confidence, buoyed by something that seems like intelligence to them. «This influence can have a profound impact on what people believe their choices and their behavior. Dunning and Ehrlinger showed in one analysis that women scored on a science questionnaire similarly with men, but women diminished their success because they thought they had less logical thinking potential than men. The researchers also found that those women were more likely to hesitate to join a science competition as a consequence of this assumption.

Dunning and his collaborators have conducted experiments asking the respondents if they are comfortable with a range of subject-related terms like governance, genetics, physics, and geography. Approximately 90 percent of respondents in one such survey said they had at least some understanding of the words made up. The more familiar participants believed they were with a subject, the more likely they were to say they were familiar with the meaningless terms as well, in line with other findings linked to the Dunning-Kruger effect. The very problem with indifference as Dunning has stated is that it can sound just like knowledge [1-4].
So what does this psychological effect explain? Are certain people just too dumb, too straight forward to realize how dim-witted they are? Dunning and Kruger say that this trend results from what they term a “dual strain.” Individuals are not only incompetent; they are deprived of the mental capacity to understand how ineffective they are. Dunning also found out that the very knowledge and skills required for a job to be successful are precisely the same attributes a person needs to realize that they are not good at that role. So if a person lacks such skills, they not only stay bad at that role but are unaware of their incompetence. “Are there any signs of the consequences of Dunning-Kruger among doctors?” While work analyzing Dunning-Kruger metrics clearly identifying the presence or absence of the test, the magnitude of the outcome has not been determined. Doctors can also try to address their own Dunning- Kruger impact by moving on to further study. “The result is due to the lack of expertise, and the answer to the lack of competence is to learn more abilities. “Young doctors should also be mindful of the Dunning-Kruger influence to be conscious of maintaining a sense of humility. “, as they achieve a preliminary understanding of functioning, always hang on to it like the tree of life because it’s so much work going through and overhauling. Experience teaches us to keep certain idling options in the past. And always be prepared to bring fresh eyes to a scenario to get our own blinders out of. “Low performers” doctors are unable to understand other colleagues’ levels of skill and expertise, which is part of why they often see themselves as stronger, more competent and more intelligent than others.
The truth is that everyone is vulnerable to this occurrence, and indeed most of us are likely to experience it with incredible regularity. In this situation, people who are true experts in medicine in one issue or skill can mistakenly believe that their expertise and experience translates into other places where they are less experienced. So what do true experts think of their skill if the inexperienced tend to think they are experts? Dunning and Kruger observed that those at the high end of the spectrum of expertise had more rational expectations of their knowledge and abilities. In reality, however, these experts appeared to overlook their own abilities compared to how others did. Essentially, these top-scoring people realize they’re better than the average, but they’re not sure just how good their success is in contrast with others. In this situation, the question is not that professionals don’t realize how well educated they are; it’s because they tend to believe that everyone else is competent.So what can we do if we are not confident that we can trust our self-assessment to achieve a more realistic assessment of our skills in a particular area? Continue to learn and train. Instead of assuming we know everything a topic needs to know, keep digging deeper. When we gain a better understanding of a subject, the more likely we are to see how much still to know.
Ask others how we do it. Another effective strategy involves seeking constructive criticism from others. Though listening can be hard at times, having reviews can provide valuable insights into how people interpret our skills. All we think inquire. Even as we understand more and get input, it can be easy to pay attention only to items that reinforce what we already think we know. This is an indication of another form of psychological bias known as affirmation prejudice. We are always questioning our values and perceptions to temper this habit. Seek information that puts the theories into doubt. The following are some methods to overcome this cognitive bias
a. Use as many measurable standards as possible b. Evaluation of the candidate with multiple measurable parameters. Testing the candidate on real goals and evaluating according to requirements
c. Replacing endoscopy with retrograde
d. Instead of evaluating our performance based on our judgment, it is better to look back on past experiences. This technique is useful both for overconfident people and for those who doubt themselves. Looking back, we are evaluating ourselves based on past performance, drawing comparable conclusions.
e. Encourage others to point out our shortcomings

In the Dunning & Kruger experiment, inadequate learners improved their ability to correctly evaluate test results after brief instruction on the skills they lacked. Regardless of the category we belong to, it is useful to have someone better than us to indicate where we are weak and need further training. The more we study (theoretically) the less we learn. It is a pleasant surprise that only people who really delve deep into what they are learning - get experience. On the other hand, superficial people are never going to realize where they are, or in what areas they need to be more educated. There is no end to learning, perfecting a skill, or acquiring knowledge. when communicating threats to the public, the message matters. Mostly, the messages should outline simple, practical steps and key threat information. Also the information to relatives or much more to the patients its shelves must be simple enough for people to understand under high pressure.

Conclusion

Doctors of ICU and Emergencies who want to be as effective as possible during a crisis or urgent emergent medical case and have their team effectively can develop the skills needed to manage the Dunning-Kruger phenomenon when times are calm and operations are normal. Further studies are needed to define education, explain variable results, and confirm clinical benefit through further analysis of the phenomenon targeted at critical care and emergencies. The Dunning-Kruger effect is one of many cognitive biases that can affect our behaviors and decisions as doctors. While it may be easier to recognize the phenomenon in others, it is important to remember that it is something that impacts everyone. By understanding the underlying causes that contribute to this psychological bias, we might be better able to spot these tendencies in ourselves and find ways to overcome them much more when our choices concern decisions in medicine.

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate: Not applicable

Consent for Publication

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Availability of Data and Materials

It’s allowed

Competing Interests

No one

Funding

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Authors’ Contributions

No one

References

1. Dunning D (2014) We are all confident idiots. Pacific Standard.
2. Atir S, Rosenzweig E, Dunning D (2015) When knowledge knows no bounds: Self-perceived expertise predicts claims of impossible knowledge. Psychological Science 26: 1295-1303.
3. Zell E, Krizan Z (2014) Do people have insight into their abilities? A metasynthesis. Perspectives on Psychological Science 9(2): 111-125.
4. Gonçalves-Sá J (2020) In the fight against the new coronavirus outbreak, we must also struggle with human bias. Nat Med 26: 305.