Dunning–Kruger effect becoming more prevalent?

Apologies in advance if I come off as someone that thinks they are are better than anyone else.

I would just like to share something I have experienced lately. It has me very worried about the state of intelligence within the UK.

Scenario - Helping pack and lift heavy items during a house move

Turn up to be told that there is no need to help with the packing, it is all done and asked if I will lift everything into the van.

Directed into each room, within, lie multiple boxes taped over with bold writing on every side (yes, even the bottom of each box).

Ask which boxes they wish me to take first as everything seems to have "FRAGILE HANDLE WITH CARE" written on it.

Person in question roars at me like I have a single digit IQ saying "Duh, you ****ing absolute ****ing c**t, take the goddamned boxes labelled fragile you stupid f*****g BEEP!

So anyways, I refrain from severe slappage, of said persons face. Begin to lift the boxes out into the van. I notice that some boxes are far lighter than others, despite each one containing bold writing stating "FRAGILE HANDLE WITH CARE" on every single box (just confirming as I checked each rooms boxes by then).
I decided to open one of them up and find a bunch of fricking teddy bears within a box labelled Fragile. I open another right next to it and find kitchen knives and crystal glasses...

I go back to the person who has asked for this favour and ask them why every single box has "FRAGILE" written on it and is this some sort of double piss-take?

The reply... "Stop being so f**king stupid! Everyone writes fragile on boxes you idiot! If they didn’t things would get broken... I look around the room in shock, with a half smirk but then...

The whole room bursts out laughing at me and begins to ridicule saying that I am stupid as I do not understand what fragile means??

I ask for an explanation after a vain in my forehead nearly explodes only to be told that it is common sense that anyone moving writes the word "Fragile" on boxes so that people do not drop or damage the goods inside.

Now normally I would find this amusing but I find myself more often than not, surrounded by this type of thing almost daily to the point it is becoming very frustrating. Is there something in the water other than fluoride these days??

a reply to: XXXN3O

You should have kept your mouth shut. Then taken a black marker and boldly written the word "NOT" on all of the boxes.

Then walked out, leaving them all to ponder their existences.

a reply to: JinMI

I did walk out.

They are all still there worried about lifting the boxes haha!

I would have said good day or good night and walked out at the first expletive. You were there to help out, right? For free?

And you are correct, I had to look up what the effect was, but it certainly seems to be all around us. People of low mental acuity think of themselves as superior intellectually to everyone around them, usually bullying people into accepting such hierarchy.

It's evident in everyday life, it's clear as day in politics and it's ever present right here, our beloved website.

originally posted by: Mahogany
I would have said good day or good night and walked out at the first expletive. You were there to help out, right? For free?

Yes. Family favour.

Sometimes feel like a black-sheep.

Few others over the last few weeks...

Preparing a meal, chopping mushrooms up with main ingredients in full view

I ask "would you like some mushrooms?"

response - "Yes, but could I have them with my main meal please?"

So im finding that one funny but then it happens...

"Funny that you mention mushrooms, I came across an article today. I knew that mushrooms were a fungus... but I had no idea they were a mold"

a reply to: XXXN3O

I wonder if this counts? It's has be an all-time favourite of mine. the wife asks if I can fix something, and I say I can and will. wife then stands over my shoulder telling me how to do said fix. so fun I wanna put my head through the wall. all time fave. does that count as dunning-kruger?(had to look it up) but it seems to be cut from the same cloth

a reply to: AnrkE

Haha!

Not necessarily, that is just a common thing in relationships, I think

It's more about folks having a delusion of superiority that is so engrained alongside extremely low intelligence. Often they boast about ability to the point that even in the face of undeniable facts demonstrating they are wrong, unskilled or however you want to put it. They cannot see it or learn from anyone else or their own mistakes as they lack the intelligence to do so but they speak with confidence whereas intelligent people tend to do the opposite, spending a lot of time analysing to the point they play themselves down.

Ever wondered why your boss at work seems to be a total twat?

Turn on the hypnobox, talent shows are filled with it...

"I is da bestest man!!!!"

a reply to: XXXN3O

the relationship thing I suppose is true however, I should have said looking over my shoulder and saying I'm doing it wrong. after she asked me to fix it. That's more accurate. also you nailed the ability to confidence paradox that I I've felt but couldn't put into words or give a name.
video isn't working BTW

originally posted by: XXXN3O
a reply to: AnrkE

Turn on the hypnobox, talent shows are filled with it...

"I is da bestest man!!!!" ...

Man, that was painful, sad and hilarious all at once. I loved the way he walked around with his head cocked to one side after he fell.

And they voted him forward. Talk about a participation trophy.

And no, XXXN30, you're not in the wrong. People, by-and-large- are %$#%^% idiots. I go to help someone and they disrespect me like that, I'm walking.

I'm guessing it's even more pronounced for those of us working in customer service. I work at a lo cost movie theater. I run into people all day long who cannot pronounce the names of simple movies, cannot read the signs that show what time the movies start and routinely seemed offended when I point out rules they're breaking or ignoring.

Growing up in the 80s, when I would make stupid boneheaded mistakes, I would get admonished from others, being told "use your head" or something that means, "use common sense". In the last 15 to 25 years it's become painfully obvious that common sense is no longer common.

Sounds to me like you are doing favours for a load of dickheads.

There are some very clever and intellectual people out there - you just have to find 'em!

a reply to: XXXN3O

"Duh, you ****ing absolute ****ing c**t,

Your helping them with a move and this is how they treat you?

Low IQ family/friends.

Time you hung out with other people.

Good luck

I'm old enough now with enough experience behind me to understand when to take it and when to leave. If I'm being paid, I'll take the brow beating and do what I have to, not take it personally and remember it's not me with the problems.

On the other hand you should never ask for it. For example, a now ex-friend of mine that I knew for some 15 years had a blow up with me. He's an excentric character with some off the wall ideas, but quite intelligent and humorous. I have my own unconventional ideas as well, so I had no problem being polite while discussing his crazy ideas.

We've helped each other many times over the years, but at one point I wasn't available to help him with a situation he had gotten into. It wasn't my fault I wasn't around when he needed me, but he was so upset with me, he ended the friendship with the idea that he's done so much for me without giving me any credit for all I had done for him. He ranted and became abusive, characterizing me as a low life, a person of low moral character, unreliable, and other things that were entirely untrue. He never told me what happened, but for some reason he blamed me for not being there.

Later on after things cooled down I visited him a few times in hopes for an apology that never came. In fact he began to become verbally abusive again over how I was handling a broken tooth of all things. Apparently during his earlier blow up with me he was serious about how he really thought of me and how I live my life. That is rich coming from a guy with a gambling problem that lives in a garage without running water, showers at a truck stop, has a wood stove for heat and craps in a bucket. But he believes that his point of view is superior to mine even though I have my own property that I live on with all the normal services, living a normal lifestyle for the last 20 years. None of my suggestions, ideas or life experience had merit, his is the superior intellect, he is ten years my elder, has seniority and is right about all his bat crap crazy ideas.

I took his abuse that last time I visited, but after I left I cut him off completely. I know I don't deserve it, I never asked for it by my actions or behavior and I refuse to take it from anyone, esp when I'm not paid too. It's too bad for my ex-friend really, he has no one but a couple of church members and another crazy guy down the road, someone he has a low opinion of as well. I understand now why he has so few friends and even his own family doesn't want to deal with him. But it wasn't myself that was the problem, and I know that to be the facts, unlike the ex-friend who is stuck in his own head, a slave to his own ego and paranoid delusions.

a reply to: XXXN3O

Just be glad you didn't have to help pack the boxes. That's the worst part of helping g someone move. Normally people put fragile on boxes with glass items dishes/knickknacks and such, not every single box.

After reading about the Dunning-Kruger effect, it's seems to be a factor in my ex-friend's problems.

In testing alternative explanations for the cognitive bias of illusory superiority, the study Why the Unskilled are Unaware: Further Explorations of (Absent) Self-insight Among the Incompetent (2008) reached the same conclusions as previous studies of the Dunning–Kruger effect: that, in contrast to high performers, "poor performers do not learn from feedback suggesting a need to improve"

So, instead of buying a place with full service or building a small house, my ex-friend built his garage, put in electricity and continued to live his sub-standard life-style all the while blowing his limited disability money daily on the lottery. He just can't learn from the feed back as proven by the fact he would rather crap in a bucket and spend money on laundry and a shower at the truck stop. I often told him to save a percentage of his occasional winnings to get a well and septic system put in, but I guess he'd rather just live in a garage, get water by the jug, poop in a bucket and pay higher land taxes by not homesteading his property. As intelligent as he seems to be, he can't process the feed back of living like that.

I moved on an undeveloped property, cleared the area, put in a well, the septic system, electricity, then put in a mobile home and got the homestead exemption to keep the property taxes low. Everything is paid for and I live on money I have earned any way I could, without a job if I have to, yet somehow I'm the low life scum of the earth and he is superior? His false sense of superiority sure sounds like the Dunning-Kruger effect to me.

a reply to: XXXN3O

Lesson to be learned here. Never Volunteer for any# unless you are very sure its something worthwhile.