Overconfident and unaware: Intellectual humility and the calibration of metacognition

Abstract

ABSTRACT Two studies examined whether Intellectual Humility moderates the Dunning-Kruger Effect – the tendency of those with little relative knowledge/expertise to overclaim their ability. In study 1, participants completed a measure of intellectual humility and were asked to predict their relative performance prior to a test of fluid intelligence, and then their actual performance was compared to their initial prediction and ranked relative to the other performances. Low performers tended to over-estimate their performance (i.e., the Dunning-Kruger effect), but less intellectually humble people demonstrated a greater susceptibility to this effect. Intellectual humility was unrelated to actual performance. These results were replicated in study 2, with a test of general knowledge in place of problem-solving ability. Additionally, in Study 2 more measures of intellectual humility were added to clarify potential relationships. Implications are discussed.