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Exploring the Dunning-Kruger Effect in a Collectivist Arab Society: An empirical study in the United Arab Emirates

Mariana V. Coutinho1*, Justin Thomas1 and Shaima S. Alshamsi1*
  • 1 Zayed University, United Arab Emirates

Prior studies have reported higher levels of overconfidence for bottom performers compared to top performers (Dunning, 2001; 2005; Dunning, Heath, & Suls, 2004; Dunning, Johnson, Ehrlinger, & Kruger, 2003; Dunning, Meyerowitz, & Holzberg, 1989; Ehrlinger, Johnson, Banner, Dunning, & Kruger, 2008). The lack of insight into performance errors displayed by bottom performers became known as the Dunning-Kruger effect (Kruger & Dunning, 1999). This effect has been shown across a variety of tasks in academic (Pavel, Robertson and Harrison, 2012; Pennycook, Ross, Koehler, and Fugelsang, 2017; Gibbs, Moore, Steel, & Mckinnon, 2017) and social domains (Graeff, 2003; Kuklinski, Quirk, Jerit, Schwieder, & Rich, 2000; Prasad et al., 2009). To date, however, few studies have explored this effect cross-culturally. The aim of the present study is to explore performance estimation biases i.e., the Dunning-Kruger effect within a relatively collectivist Arab society, specifically, the United Arab Emirates. Additionally, the current study looked at whether narcissism is associated with performance estimation biases. To do so, ninety Emirati college students completed a matrix reasoning task and subsequently assessed their own performance on it. They evaluated how well they did on the task by estimating their raw score, and how well they thought they did in comparison to their fellow classmates. Finally, participants also completed a narcissism scale. The results showed that estimated scores (M=18.43, SD=5.01) did not differ significantly from actual scores (M=18.31, SD=3.97), t(89)=.189, p = .851, reflecting a general tendency not to overestimate one’s own performance. A quartile-split was used to further explore the accuracy of own-performance estimation across different levels of actual performance: top performers (upper quartile), second and third quartile performers, and bottom performers (lower quartile). As hypothesized, bottom performers overestimated (M=18.94 , SD=4.87) their actual performance (M= 13.06, SD = 1.39), with a mean difference of 5.89 points (SD = 5.3). This difference was statistically significant t(17) = 4.7, p = .001. Contrary to previous studies in western (individualist) contexts, however, top performers grossly underestimated their performance, t(22) = 4.3, p = .001, and estimated scores did not significantly vary across the four groups (See figure 1). We also found that trait narcissism scores were positively correlated with performance comparison, r = 3.06, p =.004, that is, participants higher in trait narcissism tended to perceive their performance as being superior to that of their peers.These findings suggest that cultural values and personality traits may influence how people judge their own performance, with individuals from relatively collectivist societies being more likely give estimations closer to the mean performance.

Figure 1
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Acknowledgements

R17101 RIF grant

References

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Keywords: Overconfidence bias, Dunning-kruger effect, narcissism, Collectivist and individualistic values, reasoning

Conference: 4th International Conference on Educational Neuroscience, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 10 Mar - 11 Mar, 2019.

Presentation Type: Poster Presentation

Topic: Educational Neuroscience

Citation: Coutinho MV, Thomas J and Alshamsi SS (2019). Exploring the Dunning-Kruger Effect in a Collectivist Arab Society: An empirical study in the United Arab Emirates. Conference Abstract: 4th International Conference on Educational Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2019.229.00009

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Received: 31 Jan 2019; Published Online: 27 Sep 2019.

* Correspondence:
Dr. Mariana V Coutinho, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, mariana.coutinho@uaeu.ac.ae
Mrs. Shaima S Alshamsi, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 201232802@zu.ac.ae