In the Uk was it Brexit, Covid or just the availability of social media platforms which now means that almost everyone seems to have a set view on, well, almost everything.
In my UK True Crime Facebook Group I see this all the time – with all the major unsolved UK cases individuals are convinced of their view of what happened based on what they have read/heard but crucially not on real evidence.
This really hit me again this week with discussions around the recent tragic death of ice hockey professional Adam Johnson, and the arrest of a man on suspicion of manslaughter. Like most people in the UK, my exposure to ice hockey is limited, yet so many people on the forum seemed to have such strong views on this incident and the conversation quickly became heated.
If you have studied some psychology you may well believe that these strong views exhibited online are due, at least in part, to the Dunning–Kruger Effect, which effectively says that people with limited competence in a particular domain overestimate their abilities. I love this quote from David Dunning:
Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition. The problem with it is we see it in other people, and we don’t see it in ourselves. The first rule of the Dunning–Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning–Kruger club.
Maybe we should all take a little bit longer before reaching a set position. After all, there are many clubs you may want to belong to, but the Dunning-Kruger club isn’t one of them.