And this goes a long way towards explaining much of the current political climate. Originally shared by Ethan Siegel You've probably heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect: people who are incompetent at something lack the skills to successfully evaluate the fact that they are incompetent. This results in people who know almost nothing about a particular topic who are willing to opine at length, argue with experts, and declare -- incorrectly -- that they are right and you are an idiot. Look what I've unearthed: the original graph from the original Dunning-Kruger paper! Note how the actually competent people somewhat lowball their own ability while the incompetent grossly overestimate it. And that's your image of the day.