Is the Dunning Kruger effect present in children?

[Ocelot]

I was listening to Chris Hardwick's Nerdist Podcast and Neil Degrasse Tyson was the guest. They were discussing how some people can be too obstinate to teach. Neil suggested that this was something that people learned. That in schools children are prepared to learn and acceptant that other people know more than them but at some point some people become resistant to new ideas. Chris raised the Dunning Kruger effect and Neil seemed to not recognise the name but certainly agreed with the observation that people who know a little about a subject have an inflated idea of their own skills. He went on to say that this doesn't happen with children.

Obviously this is his anecdotal experience speaking rather than reference to actual attempts to replicate the Dunning Kruger experiment in differing age groups. Nonetheless my appetite was whet - it's plausible that the Dunning Kruger effect is learned but have any studies actually been done?

Google scholar throws up very limited results there's this sitting behind a paywall

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10567-007-0027-3

The abstract of which suggests little support for Neil's hypothesis at least among children with ADHD. However maybe that's only important because most children don't display this bias. It cites Dunning Kruger and it would be mildly interesting to find out but not £36 interesting.

Similarly http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022440510000774

 

[LSSBB]

When I search on Positive Illusory Bias I get good results.

One article analyzing parental influence:

http://jad.sagepub.com/content/18/5/456.short

 

[theprestige]

What if Neil DeGrasse Tyson is suffering from the Dunning Kruger Effect?

 

[Jules Galen]

I was listening to Chris Hardwick's Nerdist Podcast and Neil Degrasse Tyson was the guest. They were discussing how some people can be too obstinate to teach. Neil suggested that this was something that people learned. That in schools children are prepared to learn and acceptant that other people know more than them but at some point some people become resistant to new ideas. Chris raised the Dunning Kruger effect and Neil seemed to not recognise the name but certainly agreed with the observation that people who know a little about a subject have an inflated idea of their own skills. He went on to say that this doesn't happen with children.

Obviously this is his anecdotal experience speaking rather than reference to actual attempts to replicate the Dunning Kruger experiment in differing age groups. Nonetheless my appetite was whet - it's plausible that the Dunning Kruger effect is learned but have any studies actually been done?
Google scholar throws up very limited results there's this sitting behind a paywall

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10567-007-0027-3

The abstract of which suggests little support for Neil's hypothesis at least among children with ADHD. However maybe that's only important because most children don't display this bias. It cites Dunning Kruger and it would be mildly interesting to find out but not £36 interesting.

Similarly http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022440510000774

Wow!!!

Thanks Ocelot, that is a brilliant question. In the future, i will be watching for an experiment that attempts to answer this question.

Again...Thank You.

 

[Elaedith]

Younger children tend to overestimate their own cognitive performance, more so than older children and adults.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885201406000979

There are lots of measurement and statistical issues with the Dunning Kruger effect, because people with low performance have more room for overestimatation. In the case of young children, there are also issues of whether they really understand what they are being asked to estimate.

 

[Halcyon Dayz]

What if Neil DeGrasse Tyson is suffering from the Dunning Kruger Effect?

I suspect everybody does to some degree.

 

[sphenisc]

Younger children tend to overestimate their own cognitive performance, more so than older children and adults.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885201406000979

There are lots of measurement and statistical issues with the Dunning Kruger effect, because people with low performance have more room for overestimatation. In the case of young children, there are also issues of whether they really understand what they are being asked to estimate.

Before I started reading the abstract I thought I'd understand it, but afterwards I realised I didn't.

 

[Jules Galen]

As an 11-year-old child, I had a much higher estimation of my intellect than was warranted. then, I was put in some classes with a lot of other smart kids and....dayum! It sure humbled me! I couldn't argue with the grades - I just wasn't getting near the highest grades in the class any more.

Later on, I found I had a gift - a long term gift - that I had never thought important until I was about 30-years-old. I found that I was intellectually curious by nature - all the time. As a result, while I will never be a genius, I can "plug away" long enough and eventually learn a lot and accomplish a lot.

In the past few years, I have studied and learned an appreciable amount (i.e., it's had a positive impact) of metacognitive technique. As a result, I appear to some people to be much more naturally intelligent than I am - especially in the course of long, technical discussions where there is a lot of opportunity to apply metacognitive technique. Of course, any time I think I am getting too "smart for my britches" all I've got to do is talk to a Philosopher friend of mine. That humbles me out real quick (within minutes).

 

[Elaedith]

Before I started reading the abstract I thought I'd understand it, but afterwards I realised I didn't.

I didn't realise that only the abstract is available. I saw the full article, but my home computer must have been detecting through cookies that I had access.

There is a full copy available on google scholar. I didn't want to link to it because of the statement in the copyright notice. The introduction gives a background summary of research on overestimation of ability in children.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

I don't think kids have a true Dunning-Kruger going: yes, they completely overestimate what they know (or are happy about confabulating about it), but they are also curious to know more.
For children, it's about pretending to know more than their peers, and many know its easier to make stuff if you actually do have a solid basic knowledge.