The Surprising Danger of Becoming an Expert in Your Field

Self-proclaimed experts could be more susceptible to the "illusion of knowledge."

Business Insider

By Shana Lebowitz

Here's a trick you can try at the next party you attend: Come up with a completely bogus money term and then ask your financial expert friend to explain it to you.

Chances are he'll make a fool of himself when he assumes it's a real concept and claims to know all about it.

That's according to new research, which suggests that self-proclaimed experts are more susceptible to the "illusion of knowledge." In other words, people who believe they know a lot about a particular topic are more likely to claim they know about fake concepts related to that topic.

This phenomenon, called "overclaiming," could easily undermine you and work, making you look like an arrogant idiot or leading you to offer bad advice to others seeking your expertise.

The study, led by Stav Atir, a graduate student at Cornell University, tested this phenomenon among self-proclaimed experts in fields like personal finance, biology, and literature.

In one experiment, 100 participants were asked to rate their general knowledge of personal finance as well as their knowledge of 15 financial terms. Most of the terms on the list were real (e.g., "Roth IRA" and "inflation"), but participants also saw three made-up terms ("pre-rated stocks," "fixed-rate deduction," and "annualized credit").

As it turns out, those who said they knew a lot about finance were most likely to claim familiarity with the made-up terms.

In another experiment, participants were warned that some of the terms on the list would be made up. Still, those who claimed to be experts in specific fields were more likely to say they knew the made-up terms. For example, self-perceived experts in biology said they knew fake terms like "meta-toxins" and "bio-sexual."

To ensure that people's self-perceived expertise was the reason why they overestimated their knowledge, the researchers made some participants feel like geography whizzes and then tested their knowledge on the topic. Some people took an easy quiz on US cities; others took a difficult quiz; and some people didn't take any quiz.

As predicted, participants who completed the easy quiz (presumably feeling like geography experts) were more likely to say they knew made-up cities like Monroe, Montana, and Cashmere, Oregon.

"Our work suggests that the seemingly straightforward task of judging one's knowledge may not be so simple," the authors write.

The authors also highlight the potential adverse effects of thinking you know more than you do. "Self-perceived experts may give bad counsel when they should give none," they write. For example, a self-perceived financial expert may give inappropriate advice to a friend making an important money decision — instead of taking the time to really learn about the topic.

Perhaps a wiser choice than pretending to be familiar with an unfamiliar topic is simply to admit you don't know about it. It may even make you look smart — which you certainly won't when it turns out you just lectured your friends on a topic that doesn't exist.

      

9 Appearance Mistakes That Could Be Holding You Back at Work

A fashion faux-pas could mean risking a promotion.

Business Insider

By Hope Restle

You do your job well, you add value to your team, and you contribute to the company's bottom line — but you haven't been promoted in years.

Confused?

Well, it turns out that your professional success doesn't depend entirely on your work ethic and performance.

A recent survey from CareerBuilder shows that hiring managers seriously consider a professional's appearance when deciding whether to promote them to a higher position.

In a perfect world, we would only be judged by the work we do — but that's not the case. Especially in the corporate world, appearances matter...a lot.

More than 2,000 human resource managers across the US participated in the survey and cited these nine (superficial) factors as things that would dissuade them from promoting an employee:

• 44% were less likely to promote an employee who wore provocative clothing to work.
• 43% were less likely to promote an employee who wore wrinkled clothes.
• 32% were less likely to promote an employee with piercings other than traditional ear piercings.
• 27% were less likely to promote an employee who frequently wore clothing that was too casual for the workplace.
• 27% were less likely to promote an employee with visible tattoos.
• 25% were less likely to promote an employee with an unprofessional hairstyle.
• 24% were less likely to promote an employee with constant bad breath.
• 21% were less likely to promote an employee who wore too much perfume or cologne.
• 15% were less likely to promote an employee who wore too much makeup.

      

The 3 Biggest Unconscious Biases in Hiring Decisions May Surprise You

Could a hiring manager's favorite sports team influence whether you get the job?

Business Insider

By Shana Lebowitz

In an ideal world, an interviewer would evaluate job candidates based exclusively on their professional qualifications.

In reality, so many other factors come into play — like what part of the world the candidate is from or what their favorite sports teams are. For the most part, these biases are unconscious, so we aren't always aware that they could be influencing our choices.

We spoke with Madan Pillutla, Ph.D., a professor of organizational behavior at London Business School who studies trust and fairness in interpersonal interactions, about the three biggest unconscious biases in hiring decisions.

1. We gravitate toward people who are similar to us.
According to the similarity-attraction hypothesis, we tend to like people who are similar to us — whether that means they come from the same state or sport the same haircut.

One way to explain that phenomenon, Pillutla said, is that people with a decent level of self-esteem are satisfied with their personalities. So when they see their qualities reflected in someone else, they tend to like that person, too.

Another potential explanation, which is slightly harder to test, is that people have evolved to like people who look and act the way they do. At one point in human history, it was important to trust only people in your small social group. Even though that behavior is no longer necessary today, we can still act as though it is.

The problem, Pillutla said, is that "if I keep hiring people like myself, very soon I'll have an organization of people who think similarly, who act similarly." Yet research suggests that diversity of backgrounds and perspectives is important to a company's success.

2. We base our decisions on stereotypes about people's competencies.
One common example of stereotyping, Pillutla said, is that Americans tend to assume Indians who come to the US are skilled at math. So American hiring managers might be inclined to select an Indian candidate for a math-heavy position because they think he or she will excel in that role — even though it's possible another candidate could be more skilled in that area.

But while it's possible to unlearn ethnic biases, "stereotypes about gender tend to be a little deeper" and harder to reverse, Pillutla said.

For example, one recent study found that people were more likely to hire a male candidate over a female candidate to perform a mathematical task, even when they learned that the candidates would perform equally well.

3. We're wary of anyone who we perceive as a threat to our status in the organization.
Pillutla and his colleagues recently published some of the first research on this topic.

In an organization with a highly competitive culture, managers might be disinclined to bring on someone more competent than they are, especially if they feel insecure in their role.

"Even if people are well-meaning and well-intentioned, it's very difficult to act against your own self interest" by hiring someone who could outperform you, Pillutla said.

In terms of countering these three biases, Pillutla pointed to recent changes in the way musicians audition for spots in an orchestra. Now, many orchestras hold "blind auditions," in which the musicians play behind a screen, so they don't know what the candidates look like. As a result, they've accepted more women.

In fact, some companies in other fields have already adopted similar hiring strategies.

Alternatively, Pillutla said, "It's not entirely outside of the realm of possibility that for a lot of jobs we don't even need to interview people." Instead, employers could have candidates come in and work for a day, so that they could see how those candidates would really perform. This is potentially a more objective strategy that could make it harder to let our biases influence our decisions.

"It's a little out there, but I do think it would be a good thing," he said.