Keyword: «cognitive errors»

The paper attempts to characterize the Dunning-Kruger effect from the point of view of the psychological content of socially conditioned cognitive errors (distortions). The Dunning-Kruger effect is understood as the tendency of people with a low level of competence to make erroneous conclusions and wrong decisions, but unable to realize this due to the low level of their competence. A study was conducted in order to specify the psychological content of the effect. The results showed that the psychological characteristics that contribute to the manifestation of the Dunning-Kruger effect include inflated self-esteem and anticipatory inadequacy of the individual.