- Selective memory/political amnesia
- Cognitive dissonance
- Confirmation bias
Not really a recipe for a way to “progress”, is it?
Also in evidence, the Dunning-Kruger Effect:
Developed by psychologists and researchers Justin Kruger and David Dunning, the aptly named Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which an unskilled person makes poor decisions and reaches erroneous conclusions, but their incompetence is of such as scale that it eliminates the ability for them to realize their own mistakes. The unskilled therefore suffer from an illusion of superiority, rating their ability as above average, far higher than it actually is. It also explains why, in the face of clear evidence that their decisions are wrong, they plod ahead while proclaiming their superiority. A common statement when challenged is, “I can’t explain it to you because you just wouldn’t understand”, and the implication is that you just aren’t smart enough to challenge them. People exhibiting the Dunning-Kruger effect are often highly self-confident, some to the point of boorish behavior, and often exhibit an “absolutist” attitude toward their actions…even in the face of clear failure.
The converse action is that while the unskilled overrate their abilities, the highly skilled underrate their abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority. In this illusion of inferiority, actual competence may weaken self-confidence. Even highly competent individuals falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding and because of force of will or positions of power, they subjugate their correct choices to the incorrect. The error in calibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others. This cognitive error leads to thought processes that support elitism, i.e. “that guy went to Harvard Law, he must be smarter than I am”, when the actual case is just the opposi
All of us have seen it and similar, less scientifically based notions have been expressed since time immemorial. Dunning and Kruger themselves quote Charles Darwin, “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge” and Bertrand Russell (a British philosopher, logician, essayist and social critic best known for his work in mathematical logic and analytic philosophy), “One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.” W.B. Yeats put it concisely thus: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”
The Dunning–Kruger effect is not narrowly constrained to high-order cognitive skills, much less their application in the political realm during a particular era (what Russell was talking about), nor is it specifically limited to the observation that ignorance of a topic is conducive to overconfident assertions about it (which the Darwin quote implies).Dunning and Kruger cite a study where it was found that 94% of college professors rank their work as “above average” relative to their peers, underscoring that the highly intelligent and informed are hardly exempt.Anyone who understands how to take an average knows that there is no possibility that 94% of the numbers can be above the average.
A good portion of the above was taken from Wikipedia but you can find more about the Dunning-Kruger Effect at Psychology Today.
The Rio Norte Line 
B3A’s Addendum to these 3 rules:
https://therionorteline.com/2011/09/23/the-180-degree-rule/
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They won an Ig Noble prize, you idiot – there is no Noble prize in Psychology. see http://www.improbable.com/
If you are going to cut and paste from Wikipedia, at least try to get all of the letters …..
Gee thanks, I’ll happily annotate but that still doesn’t change the validity of the research – I should have caught the error and it is regrettable but the fact that Obama has a Nobel Peace prize indicates that getting a Nobel doesn’t guarantee credibility either…
May I assume that you are of the “progressive” ilk? My first clue is that you couldn’t resist using the term “idiot” in noting the mistake. Perhaps this post is applicable.
There you go. Appreciate the fact check and I added a link to Psychology Today as well. Good enough for you?
Ignoble Prize? Sounds right to me.
4th requirement: a positively nasty disposition toward anyone not in their furbie echo chamber.
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It would appear that your commenter ( Conan the Grammattican ) was anxious to prove the accuracy of your post . This he accomplished quite ably .
So “that’s” what a progressive. Why do Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh hate themselves so much?
crazycrawfish; Sean and Rush hate themselves? Of course I see your sarcasm. But what is your point? Are you so thick that you ‘think’ *ALL* people who may be satisfied with their self-assessments (of being correct) are actually wrong… and also less intelligent than they’ve ‘reasoned’?? Do you stereotype? If so, are you an equal opportunity bigot?
Maybe progressives have, through their own self-assessments, determined they are right about everything too?
I’m not sure where the bigot remark comes from, but you sound very angry. That can’t be good for the blood pressure.
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@CCF,
That can only work if they believe their own revisions of history. The historic record actually opposes them on most their major policy positions.
History interpretation is all relative.
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Spoken like a true progressive nihilist.
No, actually, it isn’t. And that is why Progressives are generally wrong — in spite of their insistence to the contrary.
Thanks for playing 🙂
Yes, actually, it is. See how easy this game is?
Incidentally, through my self-assesment I have “reasoned” I am the most intelligent person on the planet. Ever since they.started letting me define my own correctness and intelligence I’ve found that i am very rarely wrong and am always the smartest person who ever lived. I must have been a genius for suggesting that method of defining my own intelligence and correctness.
Who am i kidding?
As if there was any doubt about my self-defined awesomeness.
But did you define it, luv, or did the govt?
I define all things. I am the all seeing all dancing, crawfish of the world.
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It would be almost funny … except I believe you actually think that.
There are medications for these types of disease processes. You should consult your doctor. 🙂
Do you know any good ones? A good doc is hard to find, like the holy grail. Or is that mechanics? I forget.
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Good docs are hard to find (since Obama shifted over 700 billion dollars out of Medicare … and is just starting).
It’s going to get much, much worse my friend. Find your doctor now, and then hope he stays in Medicare practice. 🙂
I don’t need no stinking Medicare doc. I’m no 47% percenter.
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Your day is coming, Crazy. Your day is coming. 🙂
A few days late (and a few trillion dollars short) I’ll add some insights to this great piece and discussion. The additions aren’t mine but Thomas Sowell’s (from The Vision of the Anointed, p.8): “A very distinct pattern has emerged repeatedly when policies favored by the anointed [progressives] turn out to fail. This pattern typically has four stages: 1. The ‘crisis’…whose negative aspects the anointed propose to eliminate….Sometimes the situation described has already been getting better for years. Stage 2. The ‘solution’: Policies to end the crisis, advocated by the anointed, who say these policies will lead to beneficial result A. Critics say these policies will lead to detrimental result Z. The anointed dismiss these latter claims as absurd and simplistic, if not dishonest. Stage 3. The results: The policies are instituted and lead to detrimental result Z. Stage 4 The response: Those who attribute detrimental result Z to the policies are dismissed as simplistic for ignoring the complexities involved, as ‘many factors’ went into determining the outcome. The burden of proof is put on the critics to demonstrate to a certainty that these policies alone were the only probably cause of the worsening that occurred. No burden of proof whatever is put on those who had so confidently predicted improvement. Indeed it is often asserted that things would have been even worse, were it not for the wonderful programs that mitigated the inevitable damage from other factors.” He then gives three great, well documented examples of The War on Poverty, Sex Education, and Criminal Justice.
@dave – thanks for the comment – I may steal that from you for a post – fully credited of course – We also have Milton Friedman’s full “Free to Choose” video series linked in the masthead, if you are so inclined.
“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge” Which is why those on the right are so humble, and such fans of Darwin!
“Progressive” doesn’t mean what you think it means.
I think it means exactly what I think it means. Thanks for the clip, it is a great explanation. The contemporary “progressives” have melded so much together to hide what they truly think. I understand the true meaning of liberalism – I am a classic liberal – but the modern proto-communists have taken the name “liberal” and twisted it.
@Utah,
Please excuse for the misunderstanding, I am sure you know what “progressive” means, I just copy and paste it.
The really major difference between me and them is that I know that I’m full of shit.
‘The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.’
William Shakespeare — As You Like It; ACT V SCENE I The forest.
re:
Selective memory/political amnesia
Cognitive dissonance
Confirmation bias
Not really a recipe for a way to “progress”, is it?
Also in evidence, the Dunning-Kruger Effect:
This is funny because as a progressive I see these same criteria in every conservative I meet, read, or listen to. I personally believe conservatives project their own lack of morality on to progressives and then see these criteria falsely. Instead of looking objectively at the person they look into a mirror.