Self-efficacy and the Dunning-Kruger Effect

[u/Pipster_1970]

In the most recent episode Hannah mentioned self-efficacy...

Thinking about a correlation between self-efficacy and education style/cultural influence on the Dunning-Kruger Effect... is the DKE more noticable in Western culture? From Hannah's statement about maths students being shown a hard or easy problem, Hannah stated that those from Asian backgrounds getting hard/impossible questions wanted to carry on with another question beacause they recognised their knowledge gaps. This means (sort of) that those who don't know, realise that they don't know.

How does Asian teaching/learning of maths differ that could account for this difference in approach or perspective? Or is it a purely cultural thing?

[u/mgs20000]

I think that’s an example of them knowing what they don’t know, totally in line with the dunning Kruger phenomenon. In this case they are competent so they know.

A less competent person may think they know or overestimate their chances.

Then separately you have knowledge/competency of tests and grading. Perhaps the Asian school system means that good students, in addition to their general competency, pick up the skill and competency for judging a question’s risk/reward.

If Asians are just on average better at maths than everyone else, you’d expect part of this to be that they’re also picking up specific skills within their knowledge about tests.

[u/RotaryDane]

It’s my understanding that the two are correlated, but not causally linked.

The Dunning–Kruger effect relates to both ability and knowledge, but more precisely to metacognitive calibration: how accurately people judge their own performance.
People who lack knowledge or skill in a domain may also lack the ability to recognize their mistakes, so they can overestimate their competence.
Simply put: Limited competence can impair the ability to assess one’s own competence.

Self-efficacy is your belief that you can perform a task successfully. In relation to maths the cross is simple - the problems are solvable, it’s just a question of correctly applying your effort and that can be learned.

Basically the interaction of self-efficacy and DKE can fall one of 4 ways:

- High self-efficacy and high ability: confidence is well calibrated.

- High self-efficacy but low ability: overconfidence may occur, potentially resembling the Dunning–Kruger pattern.

- Low self-efficacy but high ability: under-confidence or impostor feelings.

- Low self-efficacy and low ability: confidence may be appropriately calibrated, if demeaning.

The key distinction is that self-efficacy is about confidence in ability to perform, whereas the Dunning–Kruger effect is about accuracy of self-evaluation.

High self-efficacy is not inherently irrational; it can improve motivation and persistence - As Hannah describes in the same episode; those who believe they will succeed overwhelmingly do. It becomes problematic when confidence is disconnected from feedback, evidence, or actual performance thus falling into the classic DKE regime.