(B2431) wrote:

What is the medical term for someone who knows he's correct
when provided with proof he is in error yet provides no proof of
his own?

Speaking of the ol' tarv troll...

New research indicates that incompetent people tend not to know they
are incompetent. Not only that, they also tend to be very confident
that they know what they're doing -- even more confident of their
own competence than people who really do know what they're doing.

The New York Times reports that Cornell University psychology
professor David Dunning reached those conclusions in a study he
conducted with a graduate student, and wrote about his findings in the
December issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The researchers concluded that one reason incompetent people do not
know how much they do not know, is that the cognitive skills required
to be competent are also required for recognizing actual
competence.

Researcher Justin Kruger told the Times that the incompetence of
incompetent people "robs them of their ability to realize" they have a
problem. It also makes it difficult for incompetent folks to recognize
competence in others.

***

By the way, the researchers say they also noticed that people who
can't tell a joke tend not to realize that they're not funny -- and as
a result they persist in telling jokes badly.