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Thursday, March 8, 2012

People Aren't Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish ... You Think?

Rather than be a total pessimist ... change the question ... Can people recognize their own self-interest ...?

Beyond the skepticism about our being self-delusional this article begs the question of why we need to support education and constantly evaluate what we teach and why!  In hoping that I am not totally deluded I can say I know many smart people who are very ignorant ... they have ability just not the opportunity!

From LiveScience.com via Yahoo News

The democratic process relies on the assumption that citizens (the majority of them, at least) can recognize the best political candidate, or best policy idea, when they see it. But a growing body of research has revealed an unfortunate aspect of the human psyche that would seem to disprove this notion, and imply instead that democratic elections produce mediocre leadership and policies. ...
As a result, no amount of information or facts about political candidates can override the inherent inability of many voters to accurately evaluate them. On top of that, "very smart ideas are going to be hard for people to adopt, because most people don’t have the sophistication to recognize how good an idea is," Dunning told Life's Little Mysteries. ... [my bolding]
He and colleague Justin Kruger, formerly of Cornell and now of New York University, have demonstrated again and again that people are self-delusional when it comes to their own intellectual skills. Whether the researchers are testing people's ability to rate the funniness of jokes, the correctness of grammar, or even their own performance in a game of chess, the duo has found  that people always assess their own performance as "above average" — even people who, when tested, actually perform at the very bottom of the pile. [Incompetent People Too Ignorant to Know It]

WI 1848 Forward: People Aren't Smart Enough for #Democracy to Flourish ... You Think? : #47% #99% #OWS va #1% #Elites

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