Tax Protesters and the Dunning-Kruger Incompetence Effect

[Famspear]

Justin Kruger and David Dunning, two researchers in the Department of Psychology at Cornell University, published a paper in 1999 on the difficulty that incompetent people have in recognizing their own incompetence -- and the problems that they have in recognizing the competence of people who really are qualified.

Here is a link to the article:

http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf

What the researchers have described has been referred to as the Dunning-Kruger effect.

The short story on McArthur Wheeler, the young man who reportedly robbed a bank in Pittsburgh, is funny

The article as a whole has relevance, in my view, to the problems faced by most tax protesters. --Famspear

[Famspear]

Here is a quote from the Dunning-Kruger paper:

"...when people are incompetent in the strategies they adopt to achieve success and satisfaction, they suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it. Instead . . . they are left with the mistaken impression that they are doing just fine.”

----Justin Kruger & David Dunning, “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1999, Vol. 77, No. 6, p. 1121.

Does that sound like any tax protesters we know? --Famspear

[Famspear]

Here's another quote:


-----“...the skills that engender competence in a particular domain are often the very same skills necessary to evaluate competence in that domain – one’s own or anyone else’s. Because of this, incompetent individuals lack what cognitive psychologists variously term metacognition [citation omitted], metamemory, [cit. omitted] metacomprehension [cit. omitted] or self monitoring skills [cit. omitted]. These terms refer to the ability to know how well one is performing, when one is likely to be accurate in judgment, and when one is likely to be in error.”

--Justin Kruger & David Dunning, “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1999, Vol. 77, No. 6, p. 1121.

[.]

The inability of the incompetent to recognize their own incompetence is a given and has been well documented.

Funny how this problem has arisen about 20 years after the whole silly and stupid educational concept of "self-esteem" and making no one accountable for poor performance, most particularly the poor performer, gained credence.

"I did the best I could" is good enough. Sports are bad because someone has to lose and we can't have that. Everyone must be a winner, even if they aren't.

Feeling good about yourself is good enough. Except when the real world rudely intrudes and awakens you to the fact that it isn't.

Dysfunctional TPs will no doubt continue to rant about "sheeple" as TPs continue to be sent to prison.

[The Observer]

We have discussed the incompetence factor in the TP mindset in some detail over the past. So I am sure there is nothing new in the above report that will provide any further insight.

After all, one only has to review the history of Dick Simkanin to have an excellent case study of TP incompetence.

[Burzmali]

It seems to me, the whole concept of non-competitiveness and not labelling any person or team a loser in school is an outgrowth of all the feelgood touchy-feely hippie bullsh*t.

Because little Jimmy, who has only one arm, deserves to be called a loser by authority figures because he sucks at baseball. How dare he try to live a life where he isn't ridiculed!

[Disilloosianed]

I think the point is that little Jimmy would be better served finding something he actually could excel at instead of being lied to that his baseball skills are as good as everyone else's.

[LPC]

the difficulty that incompetent people have in recognizing their own incompetence -- and the problems that they have in recognizing the competence of people who really are qualified.

Sounds like Irwin Schiff, Bulten, Sybil, Ed Brown, and lots others.

Doesn't sound like Larken Rose, though. I think Rose knows he's an anarchist, went looking for a theory to justify his desire not to pay taxes, and the whole "I really believe in 861" thing is just an act. I have similar suspicions about Hendrickson, but haven't read enough of his stuff, or been able to watch his interactions with others, to be sure.

[Imalawman]

Hello, Jim Abbott? Anyone? You know the successful pitcher in the major leagues for many seasons with only one full arm? (I'm not sure what that means to the conversation, I'm just surprised no one mentioned it, especially you cap'n)

You know I was planning on being a tennis pro until my mother pointed out (not so delicately) that I was not athletic enough to be a professional sports player of any kind and I should focus on my strengths. As such, I simply enjoyed playing sports with a modicum of success and would up having the grades to graduate all levels of school with honors. So, I believe it telling it like it is. Don't tell I'm good at something I'm not, I hate that. I want to know who and what I really am, not what I wish I were. (of course there is a place for encouragement, but that's not the same as lying about what I'm good at or not good at)

[Burzmali]

I think the point is that little Jimmy would be better served finding something he actually could excel at instead of being lied to that his baseball skills are as good as everyone else's.

Tell that the the school. It isn't like you can pick and choose the PE activity you partake in.

[Cpt Banjo]

Jim Abbott was not the first. right at the end of WWII there was another one armed pitcher in the bigs.

Cap'n, I believe you're thinking of Pete Gray, a one-armed outfielder who batted .218 for the 1945 St. Louis Browns. More about him here:

http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseball ... y_Pete.stm

[Joey Smith]

Nothing new here. Tax protestors are too dumb to know that they are not smart.

That is why when you ask them why it is that NO accredited or credible legal, tax or constitutional scholar thinks that there theories are any more than just garbage, the TPs completely ignore it. They really think that a bunch of uneducated bubbas can find the *holy grail* that allows them to avoid taxes when many tens of thousands of law professors and tax professionals who are skilled in the area have not been able to find it.

Then, when they go to jail, it is the system that is wrong and not them. In fact, it was the TPs who were just totally wrong the whole time but they were too dumb to see it.

[Quixote]

Finally, in order for the incompetent to overestimate themselves, they must satisfy a minimal threshold of knowledge, theory, or experience that suggests to themselves that they can generate correct answers. In some domains, there are clear and unavoidable reality constraints that prohibits this notion. For example, most people have no trouble identifying their inability to translate Slovenian proverbs, reconstruct an 8-cylinder engine, or diagnose acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. In these domains, without even an intuition of how to respond, people do not overestimate their ability. Instead, if people show any bias at all, it is to rate themselves as worse than their peers (Kruger, 1999).

That statement from the article suggests that something other than the Dunning-Kruger effect is to blame for tax denier delusions. None of them have any reluctance to opine on subjects they know nothing about.

[Randall]

Jim Abbott was not the first. right at the end of WWII there was another one armed pitcher in the bigs.

Cap'n, I believe you're thinking of Pete Gray, a one-armed outfielder who batted .218 for the 1945 St. Louis Browns. More about him here:

http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseball ... y_Pete.stm

If you go back even further you will find Mordecai "Three Fingers" Brown who was a major league pitcher using only, you guessed it, three fingers.

[LPC]

Finally, in order for the incompetent to overestimate themselves, they must satisfy a minimal threshold of knowledge, theory, or experience that suggests to themselves that they can generate correct answers. In some domains, there are clear and unavoidable reality constraints that prohibits this notion. For example, most people have no trouble identifying their inability to translate Slovenian proverbs, reconstruct an 8-cylinder engine, or diagnose acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. In these domains, without even an intuition of how to respond, people do not overestimate their ability. Instead, if people show any bias at all, it is to rate themselves as worse than their peers (Kruger, 1999).

That statement from the article suggests that something other than the Dunning-Kruger effect is to blame for tax denier delusions. None of them have any reluctance to opine on subjects they know nothing about.

Except that they "have an intuition of how to respond."

Face it, the intent of the Founding Fathers (and the existence of an international banking conspiracy controlling the Fed) are intuitively obvious. No special knowledge is needed.

[webhick]

Aaron Burr appeared to me in a dream once and told me that the founding fathers did it all for the nookie, for the nookie, for the nookie.......

You misheard, he was saying "wookie".

[Famspear]

I had that dream, too, and I thought he said "nookie." But my wife says I have a one-track mind, anyway. --Famspear