Dunning-Kruger effect in climate change science communication

Student report (2020)

Authors

C. Braat Civil Engineering & Geosciences

Contributors

R.W. Hut Water Resources - CEG (supervisor 1)
M.W. Ertsen Water Resources - CEG (supervisor 2)
Faculty
Civil Engineering & Geosciences
Copyright: © 2020 Charlotte Braat
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

29-04-2020

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Faculty

Civil Engineering & Geosciences

Abstract

The knowledge deficit model assumes that people make more informed decisions when they are presented with more information. This model is often used in communication strategies while it has received quite some critique from science communicators and is not well supported by social science theories. One of these critiques comes from the observed Dunning-Kruger effect, where individuals unskilled in a certain area do not possess the skills to realize their incompetence. This effect has not been researched extensively yet in relation to climate change science communication and is the topic of this paper. By means of an online questionnaire (316 respondents), respondent’s knowledge and estimated knowledge on climate change is tested. The Dunning-Kruger effect has been detected for this group and suggests a critical re-evaluation of the knowledge deficit model, however additional research is necessary. An initial analysis into the influence of factors like age, gender and highest completed education level on actual and estimated scores and the discrepancy between these is also done to provide leads for further research.