Dunning-Kruger Effect
The Dunning-Kruger Effect is a cognitive bias in which people with limited knowledge or skill in a domain overestimate their competence, while experts tend to underestimate theirs. Documented by David Dunning and Justin Kruger (Cornell, 1999), it explains why novices are often more confident than intermediate learners, why self-assessment is unreliable, and why the most dangerous decisions are sometimes made by people with just enough knowledge to feel confident.