Rampant misreporting following shootings and other breaking news events is so predictable that we unintentionally developed a formula for covering them. 

Although there is no hint of a Dunning-Kruger effect, Figure 11 does show an interesting pattern. Moving from left to right, the spread in self-assessment error tends to decrease with more education. In other words, professors are generally better at assessing their ability than are freshmen. That makes sense. Notice, though, that this increasing accuracy is different than the Dunning-Kruger effect, which is about systemic bias in the average assessment. No such bias exists in Nuhfer’s data.

On this episode, Perry & Mason sit down with Ben Radford to get the lowdown on creepy clowns, media literacy, the influence of folklore, and the psychological aspects of human beliefs. We touch on how misinformation and panic are spread through hoaxes and social media, using the example of clown sighting panics as a case study. Ben also discusses his investigations into paranormal phenomena and the experiences and empathy needed for effective investigation. His approach to investigative skepticism emphasizes the necessity for empathy, respect, and rigorous research.