Incompetence and recognizing competence in others

When the researchers then shared the performance of other participants with the people who performed poorly (hoping that they would then adjust their self-perception downward) people who scored poorly failed to adjust their self-perception of their performance.  In other words, they are completely unaware of their own incompetence and can't detect competence in others. (Justin Kruger and David Dunning, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology)