Readers of this blog may recognize this pattern as the Dunning-Kruger effect (DK) – the less someone knows about a topic the greater they overestimate their knowledge. Actually the pattern the current authors found is even more extreme that DK. In DK self-estimation still goes down with objective knowledge, but the degree to which people overestimate their knowledge increases. The current study is super DK – at the extreme end of opposition to GMOs, opponents actually knew the least about genetics but thought they knew the most. As the authors say:

Moreover, the relationship between self-assessed and objective knowledge shifts from positive to negative at high levels of opposition.

This does not happen with ordinary DK. The effect was also robust and widespread:

Similar results were obtained in a parallel study with representative samples from the United States, France and Germany, and in a study testing attitudes about a medical application of genetic engineering technology (gene therapy). This pattern did not emerge, however, for attitudes and beliefs about climate change.

That’s very interesting, that the reversal effect was not seen with climate change. There was still an ordinary DK effect, just not this super DK reversal of knowledge and confidence. What all this means is that while ordinary DK effect is in play here, it does not completely explain the results. Something else is going on with anti-GMO propaganda. That is worth exploring further.

...https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/dunning-kruger-and-gmo-opposition/?fbclid=IwAR3BQpmdYPUomcOXX90vUQ_da3t9yCzNRfY5mSvV-T_xXM6ZlXlIDJiCbpk