He who knows, and
knows that he knows, is wise. Follow him.
He who knows, and knows
not that he knows, is asleep. Wake him.
He who knows not,
and knows that he knows not, is ignorant. Teach him.
He who knows not,
and knows not that he knows not, is a fool. Shun him.
This
anonymous text is well known. It is generally presented as an Arab or Persian proverb,
sometimes as a Chinese proverb, and is even mistakenly attributed to Confucius,
as what is written in Analects 17:3 is different. The Dunning-Kruger effect,
which refers to a study
published in 1999 by these two authors in a journal of the American
Psychological Association, could be considered as an experimental study on the
first and last lines of the proverb.
To
identify the effect that bears their name, Dunning and Kruger conducted and
analyzed, with psychology students, a set of tests related to intellectual and
social activities in fields such as humor, grammar and logic. They then asked
the participants to self-evaluate, by answering the following three questions:
