Self-Illusion and Medical Expertise in the Era of COVID-19.

Self-Illusion and Medical Expertise in the Era of COVID-19.

Arthur Claessens, Olivia Keita-Perse, Frédéric Berthier, Jocelyn Raude, Gilles Chironi, Marc Faraggi, Gildas Rousseau, Sylvie Chaillou-Opitz, Hervé Renard, Valérie Aubin, Bertrand Mercier, Atul Pathak, Christophe Perrin, Yann-Erick Claessens

The Dunning-Kruger premise assumes that unqualified people are unaware of their limited skills. We tested this hypothesis in the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this cross-sectional study, 2487 participants had to self-estimate their knowledge about COVID-19 in a questionnaire on the topic. Poor performers were more likely to use mass media and social networks as sources of information and had lower levels of education. The mean self-assessment (SD) was 6.88 (2.06) and was not linked to actual level of knowledge. This observation should prompt regulatory agencies and media to apply rules that limit dissemination of infodemics" during global health crises."

2021

covid-19, Perception, Cross-sectional survey, cognitive bias, agnotology

10.1093/ofid/ofab058

Open forum infectious diseases