Psychology Commons^™

The Dunning-Kruger Effect On Free Throw Shooting, Abigail Schescke, Nicolas Veldhorst, Makayla De Young

Student Work

This study examines the Dunning-Kruger effect in regards to physical activity. Seventy-four participants with various levels of basketball experience were recruited from an undergraduate university. Participants were assigned to make predictions regarding the number of free throw shots they would make out of ten before or after warming up. Out of factors which affected participant predictions (gender, previous experience, warm up group), gender was found to have a significant relationship with predictive error score. Additionally, underconfidence from top-performing participants and overconfidence from bottom-performing participants indicates the presence of the Dunning-Kruger effect in physical tasks.