Proverbs 26:12: “Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him.” The Dunning-Kruger Effect describes a cognitive bias in which people of little expertise or ability believe themselves possessed of superior expertise or ability. The cause of this bias is a lack of knowledge sufficient to realize they lack sufficient knowledge. This sort of cognitive bias is strikingly easy to find today due in large part to our unprecedented access to raw data. You see, it is pathetically easy for us to obtain facts, figures and data of all kinds on just about any topic under the sun. Feeling a bit off today? Type in your symptoms, and instantly, you have a diagnosis. Need advice on a dispute? Enter a brief description, and there appears legal advice. Got a question about the Bible? The internet has an answer. The internet has an answer for everything, and it is delivered to us instantly, without the need to go searching through volumes on the shelf or consulting with some costly expert. We get precisely the bit of info we need when we need it. Terribly convenient, isn’t it?
The Dunning-Kruger Effect and You
In one sense, it is, we gain the particular information to a particular question; but having the little we need, might we overestimate how much we have really obtained? To ask the question another way, do we really know what we need to know? For many, the answer seems to be an immediate yes. This suggests that we have not simply overestimated our own knowledge but have overestimated the real value of individual pieces of knowledge. Certainly, an education system that has been increasingly pressured into teaching for the test and a society fascinated by points of data encourage this sort of overestimation.
Of course, our own impatience and sloth is more than enough to make us satisfied with a little knowledge.
What we lack is the context surrounding the fact that shows us how this information relates to other information, and gives us the ability to grasp its full utility. The context also helps us to judge the accuracy of the data, whether it is true, or false, or uncertain.
The context makes the data point meaningful. But understanding the context means understanding an entire field of knowledge, hundreds and thousands of data points, and their connections. It means appreciating the meaning of information outside your personal situation. This is the work of careful and deliberate study over a period of years.
The Dunning-Kruger Effect is dangerous to our entire society in several ways. First, and most obviously, we have misinformed people offering “informed” advice. We have seen plenty of examples of what can happen in these situations with results running the gamut from minor annoyance to ruined lives.
Second, it undermines the position of actual experts in our society. If anyone can gain the knowledge to diagnose their illness, argue their case in court, educate themselves, or shepherd their own soul; what are we paying doctors, lawyers, teachers, and pastors for? Not only do the experts become suspect, but their roles are distorted from without and within as society tries to accommodate the Dunning-Kruger Effect. This leaves us in a world without experts by our own choice!
People who do not know that they do not know can be funny at times, annoying at other times, and tragic at still other times. It all depends on what it is they do not know, and how long it takes to become disaffected and realize that they do not know. James ties knowledge to quality of life in the opening of his epistle, and in verse six he invites those who lack wisdom to ask God for it and receive it. When we know that we do not know the way is open for us to learn. Learning is an essential part of life, all of life not just childhood. But, to paraphrase Paul in Romans how can learn without a teacher?
The entire idea of discipleship is predicated on believers knowing what they do not know, and seeking to learn it. As we learn we are able to instruct those who have not learned yet. The Church is a community in which every member knows something, and does not know other things, and all members instruct all others according to their knowledge and gifting. Dunning-Kruger short circuit our sacred community as much or more as our secular community.
Nowhere in scripture does it condemn for not being experts on everything, or for having something left to learn. We condemn ourselves for these perceived faults. Biblically a lack of knowledge or wisdom is an invitation to growth, and with that growth comes a joy which the pretense of knowing cannot begin to match. Jesus taught His disciples so that their joy might be complete, and He continues to do so.
God has designed a community where certain persons are gifted to instruct others, to divide the word of truth rightly, and to guard the good deposit which has been passed from generation to generation since the apostles. God has placed you around older brothers and older sisters who have learned things you have not yet. All of this will save you time and energy in your own learning journey, and keep you clear of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. You will do the same for them, and for those who follow after you.
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