Incompetent people can realize their shortcomings in a counterintuitive way by enhancing their competence, which enables them to develop the metacognitive abilities to recognize their poor performance. 

Emory University

Based on previous, fragmented empirical evidence, Dunning and Kruger predicted the relationships between competence, metacognitive ability, and inflated self-assessment.

Prediction 1: 

Prediction 2:

Prediction 3:

Prediction 4:

Original Predictions by Dunning and Kruger

Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of personality and social psychology, 77 6, 1121-34 .

Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments.

Incompetent people, in contrast to their competent counterparts, tend to greatly overestimate their ability and performance relative to objective standards. 

Prediction # 1 by Dunning and Kruger

Incompetent people will struggle with deficiency in metacognitive abilities, rendering them less capable than their more competent counterparts in identifying and acknowledging competence when they see it—be it their own or that of other's. 

Prediction # 2 by Dunning and Kruger

Prediction # 4 by Dunning and Kruger

Incompetent individuals will have a harder time than their more competent counterparts in understanding their true performance level through social comparison data, meaning that they are incapable of using information about others' choices and performances to develop more precise assessments of their own abilities. 

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