David Dunning Social Psychology Lab

People Research Publications Courses Links Contact	Dunning Social Psychology Lab Pictured here are members of the Dunning Lab as they appeared in a previous existance. A current photo of lab members will soon be available by clicking above. At its most general level, research in the lab focuses on the imperfect relation between people's perceptions of their social worlds and the reality of those worlds. In all, work in the lab can be split into two components. Self-Insight. The bulk of the work in the lab concentrates on how much insight people have into their ability, potential, and moral character. Several different strands of research suggest that people often have quite mistaken views of themselves. In perhaps the most widely known example of this work, we discovered that incompetent people generally fail to recognize the depths of their incompetence, often being just as confident in their decisions and performances as their more competent peers are. Other research shows that people overestimate their moral character, although they hold remarkably accurate impressions of the moral character of their peers. Still other work aims at determining the sources of these (mistaken) self-impressions, as well as to delineate the consequences of those impressions. All of this work in self-insight is supported financially by the National Institute of Mental Health. These various research strands are being collated into an Essays in Social Psychology contribution, to be published by Psychology Press. Social Wisdom. Next to self-insight stands insight about other people. Work in the lab examines people's understanding of the basic psychology underlying the emotions, preferences, and behaviors of others. For example, people underestimate the impact of emotion on their behavior as well as the behavior of others, unless they are induced to feel the emotion themselves. They also display egocentric empathy gaps, underestimating how differently people can perceive the same situation, especially when those other people fill different social roles. Determining the costs (as well as the benefits) of these mistakes is an ongoing concern in this research. Eyewitness Testimony. The theme of accuracy and error is also front and center in work on eyewitness testimony. This work is aimed at finding clues that differentiate witnesses making accurate identifications out of a lineup from those making inaccurate identifications. In a series of studies, we have found that the best indicators that eyewitnesses are accurate are: a) they make their identification within 10 seconds, and b) can give no explanation whatsoever for their choice. Other work explores why people have so much more difficulty recognizing individuals of other races than they do their own.

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Dunning Social Psychology Lab

Pictured here are members of the Dunning Lab as they appeared in a previous existance. A current photo of lab members will soon be available by clicking above.

At its most general level, research in the lab focuses on the imperfect relation between people's perceptions of their social worlds and the reality of those worlds. In all, work in the lab can be split into two components.

Self-Insight. The bulk of the work in the lab concentrates on how much insight people have into their ability, potential, and moral character. Several different strands of research suggest that people often have quite mistaken views of themselves. In perhaps the most widely known example of this work, we discovered that incompetent people generally fail to recognize the depths of their incompetence, often being just as confident in their decisions and performances as their more competent peers are. Other research shows that people overestimate their moral character, although they hold remarkably accurate impressions of the moral character of their peers. Still other work aims at determining the sources of these (mistaken) self-impressions, as well as to delineate the consequences of those impressions.

All of this work in self-insight is supported financially by the National Institute of Mental Health. These various research strands are being collated into an Essays in Social Psychology contribution, to be published by Psychology Press.

Social Wisdom. Next to self-insight stands insight about other people. Work in the lab examines people's understanding of the basic psychology underlying the emotions, preferences, and behaviors of others. For example, people underestimate the impact of emotion on their behavior as well as the behavior of others, unless they are induced to feel the emotion themselves. They also display egocentric empathy gaps, underestimating how differently people can perceive the same situation, especially when those other people fill different social roles. Determining the costs (as well as the benefits) of these mistakes is an ongoing concern in this research.

Eyewitness Testimony. The theme of accuracy and error is also front and center in work on eyewitness testimony. This work is aimed at finding clues that differentiate witnesses making accurate identifications out of a lineup from those making inaccurate identifications. In a series of studies, we have found that the best indicators that eyewitnesses are accurate are: a) they make their identification within 10 seconds, and b) can give no explanation whatsoever for their choice. Other work explores why people have so much more difficulty recognizing individuals of other races than they do their own.