In Justin Kruger and David Dunning’s article, “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments,” they argue that individuals who overestimate their abilities, both socially and intellectually, have the inability to realize it. After thoroughly reading their work, I have come to concur with their ideas because their results support their argument.

Those unfamiliar with the work done by Kruger and Dunning, may be interested to know that it basically boils down to the concept that individuals who are incompetent lack the potential to recognize it. This is a huge dilemma. Thinking about it logically, if one cannot realize his/her own incompetence, it would be nearly impossible to correct or better themselves. In Kruger and Dunning’s second study they tested 45 Cornell University students on their logical reasoning skills. Students had to answer a 20-item questionnaire on logical reasoning. They then had to predict their percentage grade on the test, as well as predict how they did in comparison to other students in their class. The results supported their 

argument. Students predicted they did better than what they actually did and those who did the worst, over credited themselves in their prediction. Essentially this proves the idea that we are never as good as we think we are because we cannot always recognize our incompetence.

Kruger and Dunning’s argument of incompetent individuals tending to overly favor themselves is extremely useful because it sheds insight on the issues that students may have, especially in a college setting. If a student thinks they know more than what they actually know, it might lead them to not study or not take a class seriously. In essence, we are never as successful as we perceive ourselves to be because we cannot recognize our downfalls.