The Dunning-Kruger effect is a type of cognitive bias in which people believe that they are smarter and more capable than they really are. Essentially, low ability people do not possess the skills needed to recognize their own incompetence. The combination of poor self-awareness and low cognitive ability leads them to overestimate their own capabilities.

The term lends a scientific name and explanation to a problem that many people immediately recognize—that fools are blind to their own foolishness. As Charles Darwin wrote in his book The Descent of Man, “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.”

There are a lot of examples given in articles on the web, but one that sticks out for me are the “students” who have tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt for their graduate degrees in women’s studies and are outraged that people as intelligent and well-educated as they can’t get a well-paying job. It can’t possibly be their fault, because they are smart. Or something. In their minds they deserve good jobs.

I probably shouldn’t use politicians as examples, although you may be able to think of a few yourself. Since lefties like to use Donald Trump as an example, based up their own flawed perceptions, I don’t like to risk the chance that I might be falling into the same trap. Except maybe I could cite Hank Johnson (the Guam tipper); yeah, I think that would work. Here’s just one example of Hank’s work in Congress:

Then there are people like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who believes he knows all about the connection between vaccines and autism, and says there is a conspiracy between our government and vaccine manufacturers to poison our children. Here is an account of a conversation with him by the health and science editor at Slate:

The short version of the vaccine conspiracy theory (if you are stuck on the phone with RFK Jr., you will be subjected to the long version) is that a vaccine preservative called thimerosal causes autism when injected into children. Government epidemiologists and other scientists, conspiring with the vaccine industry, have covered up data and lied about vaccine ingredients to hide this fact. Journalists are dupes of this powerful cabal that is intentionally poisoning children.

For a guy whose family has such a distinguished record of public service, Kennedy says some pretty awful things about government employees: “The lies that you are hearing and printing from the CDC are things that should be investigated.” He spoke to one scientist (he named her but I won’t spread the defamation) who, he said, “was actually very honest. She said it’s not safe. She said we know it destroys their brains.”

I asked the scientist about their conversation. She said there is in fact no evidence that thimerosal destroys children’s brains, and that she never said that it did.

Now I said I would try not to use politicians in my examples, and look what I did!

Can you think of any good examples?