Although the benefits of vaccines are widely recognized by medical experts, public opinion about vaccination policies is mixed. We analyze public opinion about vaccination policies to assess whether Dunning-Kruger effects can help to explain anti-vaccination policy attitudes.
People low in autism awareness – that is, the knowledge of basic facts and dismissal of misinformation about autism – should be the most likely to think that they are better informed than medical experts about the causes of autism (a Dunning-Kruger effect). This “overconfidence” should be associated with decreased support for mandatory vaccination policies and skepticism about the role that medical professionals play in the policymaking process.
In an original survey of U.S. adults (Nâ¯=â¯1310), we modeled self-reported overconfidence as a function of responses to a knowledge test about the causes of autism, and the endorsement of misinformation about a link between vaccines and autism. We then modeled anti-vaccination policy support and attitudes toward the role that experts play in the policymaking process as a function of overconfidence and the autism awareness indicators while controlling for potential confounding factors.
More than a third of respondents in our sample thought that they knew as much or more than doctors (36%) and scientists (34%) about the causes of autism. Our analysis indicates that this overconfidence is highest among those with low levels of knowledge about the causes of autism and those with high levels of misinformation endorsement. Further, our results suggest that this overconfidence is associated with opposition to mandatory vaccination policy. Overconfidence is also associated with increased support for the role that non-experts (e.g., celebrities) play in the policymaking process.
Dunning-Kruger effects can help to explain public opposition to vaccination policies and should be carefully considered in future research on anti-vaccine policy attitudes.
dWintermut3 on July 1st, 2018 at 04:36 UTC »
No, no it doesn't.
All Dunning and Kruger proved was "when people have absolutely no idea how well they are ranked, competitively, they will assume they are average".
The people performing 20% and below ranked themselves at 60%, but because of reporting bias (no one wants to admit to being average) they likely actually thought they were in the 40-50% range and reported 60%.
They did not think they were experts, just about average or slightly above.
They were also in a situation measuring abstract values like "sense of humor" or other kinds of performance, with no context or metrics. Being competitively ranked against others.
The experiment proved nothing about non-competitive ranking, actual experience, or performance of concrete or complex aggregate tasks like, say, job performance.
They didn't measure what most people think they did, later work by Dunning et. al. Expanded on this slightly, but still never proved what most people assume the dunning-kruger effect to mean.
dsync1 on July 1st, 2018 at 04:03 UTC »
Anti-vaccination attitudes tend to prevail in communities that have suspicion of structures/establishments be they government, corporations etc. I don't think the Antivaxx communities are necessarily believing they are smarter than scientists as much as they are buying into the idea of scientists manipulating information on the behalf of _________.
Some cases are not necessarily without merit. An example might be some of the failures of the Polio vaccine in the early 2000's in Africa. Public Trust in governance, and medical institutions etc. was non-existent in some places, and rightfully so with corrupt governments, counterfeit "Fake" medication, and scandals plaguing some of their countries, what reason would someone exposed to misinformation, corruption and exploitation on a regular basis have for trusting us as the GPEI/WHO over their local fear monger...
In the US we regularly publish on "big pharma" and greedy drug executives, creating an association in some peoples minds that leads to some of these reservations. Dunning-Kruger is just an excuse to ignore the root causes of an erosion of public-trust in the biopharma/govpharma industry.
GUlysses on July 1st, 2018 at 02:38 UTC »
The Dunning-Kruger effect is the exact type of thing that once you become aware of it, you start noticing it everywhere.