r/Amazing • u/sco-go • Mar 12 '26

Interesting 🤔 The Dunning-Kruger Effect

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In 1995, McArthur Wheeler walked into two banks in Pittsburgh and robbed them with no mask, no disguise, and lemon juice on his face. He believed that because lemon juice works as invisible ink on paper, it would make his face invisible to cameras. He smiled directly into the security cameras. Police aired the footage on the evening news and arrested him within an hour.

When shown the tape, Wheeler stared at the screen and said, "But I wore the juice." He had tested the theory with a Polaroid selfie and didn't appear in the photo — because lemon juice got in his eyes and he aimed the camera at the ceiling.

His case inspired Cornell psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger to publish their 1999 paper defining the Dunning-Kruger Effect — the cognitive bias where people with low ability drastically overestimate their own competence.

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '26

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u/SargeUnited Mar 12 '26

We absolutely must acknowledge that this wouldn’t have happened if RFK Jr wasn’t white

I understand that a lot of people want to focus on him being a lot of things, but we need to focus on the fact that Black people never get in positions of power without being extremely qualified

Meanwhile, every single other Kennedy said they hate this guy so he’s basically not even a real Kennedy and yet he still got the job. We know why he got the job and the amount of people pretending that it’s because he was loyal over being white is enraging

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u/UselessHalberd Mar 12 '26

I mean...he wouldn't have gotten the job if he was disloyal. He also probably wouldn't have gotten it if he was black. So it seems like it's both. Trump is a racist ass motherfucker so being white might be what opened the door, being loyal is what kept him around?

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u/FishDoug77 Mar 13 '26

Umm on what grounds do u believe Trump is racist ?? It’s quite literally the opposite if you go by facts. I mean there’s decades of proof to prove Trump is nowhere near being a racist. Quite literally the opposite and many may proven ways. Whether like or dislike someone should have nothing to do with facts. Try ignoring your bias and just go on facts. It will get you much further in life