Dunning-Kruger In Action

One of my regular points here has been that it's less productive to try to explain Biden's behavior by saying he has a medical condition, which nobody other than a medical professional who's examined him can say, than it is to refer to the Dunning-Kruger Effect, the cognitive bias in which people with limited competence in a particular domain overestimate their abilities. A clear example of how this works is in Joe's heated exchange with Fox's Peter Doocy in New Mexico this past Wednesday, August 9.

Doocy is providing some funny backstory to the exchange, as well as reporting on the White House’s response to his question.

Doocy said Biden was waving him over to talk, so he tried to climb over a barrier where the press was being held when he was stopped by a White House aide. The aide was trying to stop him, saying Biden didn’t have time to talk. Doocy joked, cautioning the public not to ever jump over a barrier to do what he did in the face of the Secret Service.

Elsewhwere, Doocy stressed that Biden had specifically invited him to cross the security barrier:

I had a chance at the president’s invitation – he waved us on over – to ask him.

According to The Hill,

Doocy, who returned to Fox’s airwaves this week after a stint on paternity leave, has gotten under the president’s skin with his line of questioning on multiple occasions.

The Independent link above repeats the point that Doocy is the one reporter whose questions Joe most resents:

Early last year, a hot microphone captured the president referring to Doocy as “a stupid son of a b****” following a question posed by the reporter about inflation.

But Biden repeatedly seeks out Doocy specifically to set up the same sort of exchanges in which Joe comes off second best. The puzzling thing is why this pattern exists -- the White House staff is clearly aware of it and tries to prevent new instances.

Such was the case on Wednesday, when during the now-infamous clip of Biden losing it with Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy, a handler stepped in moments after Doocy began asking the Devon Archer speakerphone question — and proceeded to promptly take control of the situation… and Joe Biden.

Fox reporter Peter Doocy shouted a question to the president during the event in New Mexico. When the president could not hear him, he asked him to get closer. Doocy jumped over the barriers to speak with the president. It is hard to hear the conversation, but it was an… pic.twitter.com/dgRxxmTqam

— Emel Akan (@mlakan) August 9, 2023

The Red State writer comments,

I mean seriously – this woman absolutely means business.

The problem is that Joe himself works against his staff, as he did in New Mexico. I think the reason is clear: he simply thinks he's smarter than Doocy, whom he sees as the most capable of his opponents in the press, so he deliberately seeks Doocy out to prove it. And in his mind, he does in fact think he's proven it, every time, which is why he keeps doing it. Cut to the Dunning-Kruger effect:

John Cleese, the British comedian, once summed up the idea of the Dunning–Kruger effect as, “If you are really, really stupid, then it’s impossible for you to know you are really, really stupid.”

One problem Joe has is that not only does he think he's smarter than Peter Doocy, and not only does he believe he proves it every time he engages Doocy, but he also clearly thinks he's smarter than the White House staff who keep trying to prevent him from doing it.