The Trouble of Not Knowing What You Do Not Know

In this chapter the author discusses the difficulty people have in grasping the shape and scope of their ignorance. More pointedly, he describes how empirical evidence in psychology illustrates how hard it is for people to identify the boundary where knowledge ends and ignorance begins. People profess familiarity with concepts that do not exist, claim understanding of complex systems (e.g., how a helicopter works) they cannot articulate when asked, and fail to recognize gaps in their expertise (i.e., the Dunning-Kruger effect). This ignorance of ignorance arises because people have no awareness of “unknown unknowns,” they fail to actively consider the limits of their knowledge, and their ignorance is veiled by false beliefs they assume to be true. This ignorance carries implications for both the self and society. For the self, people often fail to know when they need to seek advice and fail to recognize true expertise in others. For society, it can lead to unwarranted dismissals of experts as well as gullibility to false prophets and their misinformation.