Accurate self-insight is critical for learning and goal pursuit. However, the confidence people hold all too rarely matches the confidence they merit. As a result, those with great confidence pass up opportunities to gain actual knowledge and skill. Others are held back by a failure to recognize their strengths.
My research applies a dual-faceted approach to shed new light on the processes that underlie accuracy and error in self-judgment and, in particular, overconfidence. Taking a bottom-up perspective, I have identified important factors that keep people from learning about mistakes and, consequently, their abilities. I also examine the top-down consequences of beliefs about ability and objectivity on self-judgment. Finally, my work examines the consequences of over- and underconfidence for goal commitment, persistence, and achievement.
Fay*, A.J., Jordan, A.H., & Ehrlinger, J. (2012). How social norms promote misleading social feedback and inaccurate self-assessment. Compass: Social and Personality Psychology, 6(2), 206-216.
Sparks*, E.A., & Ehrlinger, J. (2012). Psychological contributors to the failure to anticipate unintended consequences. Compass: Social and Personality Psychology, 6(5), 417-427.
Eibach, R.P., Libby, L.K., & Ehrlinger, J. (2012). Unrecognized changes in the self contribute to exaggerated judgments of external decline. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 34(3), 193-203.
Ross, L., Ehrlinger, J., & Gilovich, T.D., (In Press). The Bias Blind Spot and its Implications.In Contemporary Organizational Behavior in Action. K.D. Elsbach, A.B. Kayes, & D.C. (Eds.) Pearson Prentice Hall:
2011
Conlon*, K.E., Ehrlinger, J., Eibach, R.P., Crescioni*, A.W., Alquist*, J.L., Gerend, M.A., & Dutton, G.R. (2011) Keeping one’s eyes on the prize: The longitudinal benefits of accomplishment focus on progress toward a weight loss goal. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 47, 853-855.
Crescioni*, A.W., Ehrlinger, J., Alquist*, J.L., Conlon*, K.E., Baumeister, R.F., & Dutton, G.R. (2011). High Trait Self-Control Predicts Positive Health Behaviors and Success in Weight Loss. Journal of Health Psychology, 16(5), 750-759.
Eccles, D.W., Ward, P., Woodman, T., Janelle, C.M., Le Scanff, C., Ehrlinger, J., Castanier, C., & Coombes, S.A. (2011). Where’s the emotion? How sport psychology can inform research on emotion in human factors. Human Factors, 53, 180-202.
Ehrlinger, J. & Eibach, R.P (2011) How focalism contributes to the failure to anticipate unintended consequences. Basic and Applied Social Psychology. 33, 59-68.
Ehrlinger, J., Plant, E.A., Eibach, R.P., Columb*, C.J., Goplen*, J.L., Kunstman*, J.W., & Butz*, D.A. (2011) How exposure to the Confederate flag affects willingness to vote for Barack Obama. Political Psychology, 32(1), 131-146
Sparks*, E.A., Ehrlinger, J., & Eibach, R.P. (2011). Failing to commit: Maximizers avoid commitment in a way that contributes to reduced satisfaction. Personality and Individual Differences, 52, 72-77.
2010
Eibach, R.P., & Ehrlinger, J. (2010). How Far We’ve Come versus How Far We Have Left to Go: Reference Points in Men’s and Women’s Judgments of Progress towards Gender Equality. Sex Roles, 63 (11), 882-893.
Ehrlinger, J. & Mitchum*, A. (2010) How beliefs in the ability to improve influence accuracy in and use of metacognitive judgments. Advances in Psychology Research, 69, 229-238.
2009
Eibach, R.P., Libby, L.K., & Ehrlinger, J. (2009). Priming Family Values: How Being a Parent Affects Moral Evaluations of Harmless but Offensive Acts. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(5), 1160-1163.
2008
Ehrlinger, J. (2008). Self-views and self theories as sources of error in self-assessment. Compass: Social and Personality Psychology, 2, 382-398
Ehrlinger, J., Johnson, K.L., Banner*, M., Dunning, D.A., & Kruger, J. (2008). Why the unskilled are unaware: Further explorations of (absent) self-insight among the incompetent. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 105, 98-121.
2006
Eibach, R.P. & Ehrlinger, J. . (2006). “Keep your eyes on the prize”: Reference points and group differences in assessing progress towards equality. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Dweck, C.S. & Ehrlinger, J. (2006). Implicit theories and conflict resolution. In The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice. M. Deutsch & P.T. Coleman (Eds.), San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
2005
Ehrlinger J., Gilovich, T.D., & Ross, L. (2005). Peering into the bias blind spot: People’s assessments of bias in themselves and others. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
2004
Strasser, R., Ehrlinger, J., Bingman, V.P. (2004) Transitive behavior in hippocampal-lesioned pigeons. Brain, Behavior and Evolution, 63, 181-188.
2003
Ehrlinger J. & Dunning, D.A. (2003). How chronic self-views influence (and mislead) estimates of performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 5-17.
Dunning, D.A., Johnson, K.L., Ehrlinger, J., & Kruger, J. (2003) Why people fail to recognize their own incompetence. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12, 83-87.
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