Presence or absence of Dunning-Kruger effect: Differences in narcissism, general self-efficacy and decision-making styles in young adults

Abstract

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which individuals who are unskilled in certain domains overestimate their ability and are unaware of it. Past studies have focused on establishing the effect but have not looked into associated factors. This study aimed to see if the Dunning-Kruger effect has any influence on an individual’s narcissism, general self-efficacy and decision making styles especially in young adults in the Indian population. The Dunning- Kruger effect was established using scores from the Cognitive Reflection Task and the Rationality scale from Rational Experiential Inventory, keeping the ‘Unskilled and Unaware’ phrase under consideration, while establishing cut-offs. The participants were also divided into three groups - the group that was able to estimate their performance, the group that over-estimated their performance and the group that underestimated their performance. The dependent variables were measured using the NPI-16, General Self-Efficacy Scale and Flinders’ Decision-Making Styles Questionnaire. The Kruskal-Wallis H results showed that there is a significant difference between the group with Dunning-Kruger effect, without Dunning-Kruger effect and the group that underestimated their performance with reference to Narcissism, General Self-Efficacy, Vigilance and Hypervigilance decision-making styles. The Mann-Whitney U results further indicated a significant difference in Narcissism and Vigilance, between the groups that overestimated their performance and the group that accurately estimated their performance. However, there was no correlation between the CRT discrepancy scores of the individuals with Dunning-Kruger effect and the dependent variables.