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Why The Loudest are Often the Most Wrong

Sun, 06 May 2007 03:37:49 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks: This classic paper by Kruger and Dunning, Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments, examines the psychological reasons for the unfortunately common correlation between ignorance and confidence.

We argue that when people are incompetent in the strategies they adopt to achieve success and satisfaction, they suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it. Instead, like Mr. Wheeler, they are left with the mistaken impression that they are doing just fine. As Miller (1993) perceptively observed in the quote that opens this article, and as Charles Darwin (1871) sagely noted over a century ago, "ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge."

(PDF here.)

Clip Source: gagne.homedns.org

Abstract
People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it. Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd. Several analyses linked this miscalibration to deficits in metacognitive skill, or the capacity to distinguish accuracy from error. Paradoxically, improving the skills of participants, and thus increasing their metacognitive competence, helped them recognize the limitations of their abilities.

Tags: ignorance, crank, cranks, troll, trolls, skill, psychology, learning, confidence, expert, study, science

The story behind Hitler's moustache

Mon, 07 May 2007 08:47:28 GMT

clipped by: Deepti
clipper's remarks: The prosaic explanation comes in a new biography of the writer Alexander Moritz Frey, who came to know him when both were lowly privates in a Bavarian infantry division.

In a hitherto unpublished essay, Frey, who died in 1957, wrote of his first meeting with Hitler in 1915: "A pale, tall man tumbled down into the cellar after the first shells of the daily evening attacks had begun to fall, fear and rage glowing in his eyes.

"At that time he looked tall because he was so thin. A full moustache, which had to be trimmed later because of the new gas masks, covered the ugly slit of his mouth."

Clip Source: www.gulfnews.com

His moustache is the most instantly recognisable - and sinister - in history.

Yet, according to new research into Adolf Hitler's early life, the distinctive, toothbrush shape that adorned his scowling face was not his first preference.

A previously unpublished essay by a writer who served alongside Hitler in the First World War trenches reveals the future Fuhrer was only obeying orders when he shaped his moustache into its tightly-clipped style.

He was instructed to do so in order that it would fit under the respirator masks, introduced in response to British mustard gas attacks.

Had that order never been issued, the tyrant who brought most of Europe to its knees would be remembered as a man with a large Prussian moustache

Tags: moustache, hitler, germany, wwii, essay

Star Wars toys that never made it

Mon, 07 May 2007 17:31:16 GMT

clipped by: readmore

Clip Source: www.mcmorran.org

Whatever happened to all the ideas for Star Wars toys that got rejected by Palitoy? Let's take a look at the cast-offs from those prototyping brainstorming workshops.

Tags: science fiction, humor