David Alan Dunning
Mary Ann and Charles R Walgreen Jr Professor of the Study of Human Understanding, Professor of Psychology, Associate Chair, Department of Psychology, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts and Faculty Associate, Research Center for Group Dynamics, Institute for Social Research
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His research focuses on the psychology underlying human misbelief. In his most widely-cited work, he showed that people tend to hold flattering opinions of their competence, character, and prospects that cannot be justified from objective evidence–a phenomenon that carries many implications for health, education, the workplace, and economic exchange. He also examines how many of these same processes also injure judgments made by groups.
- Corey S. Powell, David Alan Dunning. 2026. L'effet Dunning-Kruger nous touche tous un jour ou l'autre (The Dunning-Kruger effect affects us all sooner or later). Cerveau & Psycho 186(4):60-65.
- Detlef Fetchenhauer, David Alan Dunning, Paschalia Georgantzi, Thomas Graczyk, Thomas Schlösser. 2026. Trust as a Personal Resource: A Mathew Effect of Believing in the Well-Meaning of Others. The Psychology of Trust :202-219.
- David Alan Dunning, Thomas Schlösser, Detlef Fetchenhauer. 2026. Trust Versus Rationality. The Psychology of Trust :43-61.
- Stav Atir, Emily Rosenzweig, David Alan Dunning. 2025. When do people claim to know the unknowable? The impact of informational context on overclaiming. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 186:104390.
- Wu, Qianying, Song, Miao, Ayoub, Jackie, David Alan Dunning, Tian, Danyang, Moradi-Pari, Ehsan. 2025. Prosocial decisions in naturalistic helping scenarios are predicted by cost-benefit tradeoffs and individual disposition. Communications Psychology 4(1):2.
- Detlef Fetchenhauer, David Alan Dunning, Daniel Ehlebracht, Thomas Graczyk, Thomas Schlösser. 2025. Behavioral Trust in Competence Versus Morality: Experimental Evidence of Differences and Similarities. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 38(4):e70037.
- David Alan Dunning. 2025. False Beliefs among Experts and the Cognitively Able. The Psychology of False Beliefs :227-245.
- Carmen Sanchez, Steffen Moritz, David Alan Dunning. 2025. Jumping to Conclusions. The Routledge Handbook of the Uncertain Self :118-131.
- McKenna,Clint, David Alan Dunning. 2025. Psychological mechanisms underlying the biased interpretation of numerical scientific evidence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 154(3):686-710.
- Stav Atir, Emily Rosenzweig, David Alan Dunning. 2024. Does expertise protect against overclaiming false knowledge?. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 184:104354.