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> Epistemics > Confidence and Calibration > arghXiv:2605.08840

Invocation of a Named Cognitive Finding in Adversarial Exchanges, and Its Correspondence to the Finding

K. Lindqvist

Abstract: One well-known result in the psychology of self-assessment is invoked by name in these channels at a rate of 1.9 invocations per thousand messages. We coded 640 invocations against the content of the result named. Nineteen per cent characterised it correctly. Seventy-four per cent rendered it as the claim that incompetent participants are unaware of their incompetence, which is a stronger claim than the result supports and is the form in which it is almost always deployed against a named opponent. In the 210 invocations occurring in exchanges where an independent accuracy judgement could be made on the matter in dispute, the invoking participant was the less accurate of the two in 58 per cent of cases. We report this without further comment.

Comments:
16 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. The finding invoked is real and is not evaluated here.
Subjects:
Confidence and Calibration (epist.CONF) (primary class); Credentialism (epist.CRED); Moves and Tactics (argu.MOV); Social Discourse (disc.SOC)
TDC classes:
8.05; 9.04
Cite as:
arghXiv:2605.08840v1 (BibTeX)
Submission history:
From: K. Lindqvist [view email]
[v1] Tue, 19 May 2026