Everyday people encounter decisions that can change the course of their lives forever. But what if some people were just doomed by the fact that they always make the wrong decision without knowing it until they have to face the repercussions? People make decisions based on their competence. If people are too stupid to make the right decisions then they have to be too stupid that they don’t realize that this decision was wrong. This leads to the question: how will people be able to make the right decisions if they don’t know they are making the wrong one? This is known as the Dunning Krueger effect and it is based on the fact that “When people are incompetent in the strategies they adopt to achieve success and satisfaction, they suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it.” This statement may seem complex but is truly simple when simplified. It is about how when people who are too dumb to make the right decisions they are too dumb to know that it was a bad decision. This plays an extremely important role in our lives because it questions our ability to make our daily decisions. 

I believe that the story Othello is a symbol of the Dunning Krueger effect because the premise of the story is based on one decision: whether or not Othello’s wife, Desdemona, is cheating on him. All whilst this is happening his friend Iago is doing everything he can to convince him that she is. Iago basically controls Othello’s decision-making and makes him believe whatever he tells him. Whenever Iago tells Othello something he believes it and carries out the actions Iago tells him to. These actions eventually become so drastic that they result in Othello killing his wife. This leads me to make the comparison that the character Othello represents the human spirit while Iago represents the ability to make decisions. Othello cannot give any input to the decision or even recognize that it is a bad one until the decision occurs. While Iago can make any decision he wants based on one thing; how it can benefit him. The Dunning Krueger effect represents the Othellos of the world, who are too dumb to make the right decisions and cannot realize that it is the wrong decision. They constantly have to suffer the repercussions of their actions even if they don’t think that their actions were wrong. These people are clueless and make decisions based on poor facts and lies just like how Iago made the decision for Othello to kill his wife. 

As shown before the Dunning Krueger effect can cause people to make bad decisions without knowing it and can be seen in almost everything we see today. An example of a terrible decision affecting many lives is the Ahmad Arbery case. This case is based on how three white residents Travis Mchmichael, Gregory Mchmichael, and William Bryan chased Ahmad Arbery in their cars armed with guns. Due to them thinking that he was a burglar when in reality he was just taking a jog around the neighborhood. Although in black and white the killing of Ahmad Arbery can be seen as a bad decision. We have to take a closer look at why the assailants made this decision and if they know that the decision they made was wrong. According to the killers of Ahmad Arbery, they said the reason why they chased him was that they thought that he was a burglar and when they tried to make a citizen’s arrest the situation escalated causing him to be killed. These were the events that happened through the lens of the killers. What actually happened was that Ahmad Arbery was going on a jog and stopped to look at a house that was under construction; he was then chased by Travis Mchmichael, Gregory Mchmichael, and William Bryan, who later shot and killed him. This shows how skewed reality can be perceived and that whenever someone makes a life-changing decision they typically think that it is the right one even when they face the repercussions. 

What we can learn in both of these situations is that people make rash decisions based on their emotional states. They make these decisions based on little proof and sometimes even lies. People always stick to the decisions they make, right or wrong, no matter what. We need to be aware of the Dunning Krueger effect because there can be many individuals out there who are confident in their decision-making when it turns out that it is the one thing holding them back in achieving their goals. How can we make sure that the Dunning Krueger effect is not affecting our lives in this very instance you may ask? In my opinion, it is very simple: always be open to listening to new ideas, and don’t be afraid to evaluate your decisions. All in all, you might not always make the right decisions one hundred percent of the time but it is important that you are always aware of when you make bad decisions.