Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Briefing
  • Published:

With some knowledge comes great confidence (and negative attitudes toward science)

We proposed a confidence metric and analysed data from five large surveys that spanned 30 years in Europe and the USA. We found that both overconfidence and negative attitudes towards science peak at intermediate knowledge levels.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Overconfidence and negative attitudes towards science peak at intermediate levels of scientific knowledge.

References

  1. Bauer, M. W., Allum, N. & Miller, S. What can we learn from 25 years of PUS survey research? Liberating and expanding the agenda. Public Underst. Sci. 16, 79–95 (2007). A review of public understanding of science research, which describes the deficit model and the main dataset used in the paper (the Eurobarometer PUS surveys).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Kruger, J. & Dunning, D. Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 77, 1121–1134 (1999). This paper established the Dunning–Kruger effect.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Dunning, D. in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (ed. Gawronski, B.) ch. 5 (Academic, 2011). A review of the Dunning–Kruger effect, in which Dunning describes the ‘double burden of incompetence’.

  4. Fernbach, P. M., Light, N., Scott, S. E., Inbar, Y. & Rozin, P. Extreme opponents of genetically modified foods know the least but think they know the most. Nat. Hum. Behav. 3, 251–256 (2019). This paper identifies the Dunning–Kruger effect in the controversial field of genetically modified organisms and offered one of the datasets used in the study.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Hamilton, L. C. Self-assessed understanding of climate change. Climatic Change 151, 349–362 (2018). This paper reveals gender differences in confidence in scientific (climate change) knowledge, also showing how self-reported confidence does not vary linearly with knowledge.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This is a summary of: Lackner, S. et al. Intermediate levels of scientific knowledge are associated with overconfidence and negative attitudes towards science. Nat. Hum. Behav., https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01677-8 (2023).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

With some knowledge comes great confidence (and negative attitudes toward science). Nat Hum Behav 7, 1424–1425 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01678-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01678-7

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing