David A. Dunning
David Dunning is the Mary Ann and Charles R. Walgreen Jr. Professor of the Study of Human Understanding, professor of psychology, and associate chair of the Department of Psychology, and faculty affiliate at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. His research centers on the psychology underlying human misbelief and decision-making in various settings. In his most widely-cited work, he showed that people tend to hold flattering opinions of their competence, character, and prospects that cannot be justified from objective evidence—a phenomenon that carries many implications for health, education, the workplace, and economic exchange. He also examines how many of these same processes also injure judgments made by groups.
Dunning’s other research focuses on decision-making in various settings. In work on economic games, he explores how choices commonly presumed to be economic in nature actually hinge more on psychological factors, such as social norms and emotion. In particular, he documents that people trust complete strangers in situations in which the economic analysis would suggest no trust whatsoever. In addition, he explores how people’s preferences and wishes distort their judgements and conclusions. In past work, he has shown how the influence of motivated reasoning extends even down to shape perceptual experience, such as vision and hearing.
He received his BA from Michigan State University and PhD from Stanford University.