The Truth About Stupid People That Got Socrates Killed (Dunning-Kruger Effect)
The idea that “stupid people” killed Socrates is a popular but misleading interpretation of the Dunning-Kruger effect. The effect, originally studied by psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger in 1999, does not refer to general intelligence or “dumb people” as a group. Instead, it describes a cognitive bias where individuals with limited knowledge or skill in a specific domain overestimate their competence—especially when …