Do People Overestimate their Information Literacy Skills? - A Systematic Review of Empirical Evidence on the Dunning-Kruger Effect

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by jay

This systematic review analyzes 53 English-language studies comparing people’s self-reported and demonstrated information literacy (IL) skills. The review aims to determine whether empirical evidence supports the Dunning-Kruger Effect in information literacy contexts. Findings indicate the effect operates here: weak performers tend to overestimate their IL abilities in self-assessments and show no calibration between perceived and actual skills. Results inform both theory and practice for librarians and IL educators.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Do People Overestimate their Information Literacy Skills? A Systematic Review of Empirical Evidence on the Dunning Kruger Effect Khalid Mahmood, University of the Punjab Abstract This systematic review has analyzed 53 English language studies that assessed and compared peoples’ self-reported and demonstrated information literacy (IL) skills. The objective was to collect empirical evidence on the existence of Dunning-Kruger Effect in the area of information literacy. The findings clearly show that this theory works in this area. It is concluded that there is no calibration in peoples’ perceived and actual IL skills; in most cases low-performers overestimate their skills in self-assessments. The findings have theoretical and practical implications for librarians and IL educators. Keywords: information literacy; assessment; Dunning-Kruger Effect Mahmood, K. Do people overestimate their information literacy skills? A systematic review of empirical evidence on the Dunning-Kruger effect. Communications in Information Literacy, 10(2), 198-213. Copyright for articles published in Communications in Information Literacy is retained by the author(s). Author(s) also extend to Communications in Information Literacy the right to redistribute this article via other scholarly resources and bibliographic databases. This extension allows the authors'copyrighted content to be included in some databases that are distributed and maintained by for-profit companies. All other rights of redistribution are licensed by Communications in Information Literacy under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BYNC-SA 4 .0) . Do People Overestimate their Information Literacy Skills? A Systematic Review of Empirical Evidence on the Dunning Kruger Effect Introduction The assessment of self-perceptions has been one of the popular methods of evaluating information literacy skills of students and professionals. Self-efficacy, based on selfperceptions regarding particular behaviors, influences human functioning and is considered important for lifelong learning. Kurbanoglu, Akkoyunlu and Umay (2006) argued,“if individuals feel themselves competent and confident about the information literacy skills they will willingly undertake and easily solve information problems. Otherwise, it is more likely that they will avoid and hesitate to try solving information problems in their hands”(p. 731-732). From the point of view of educational psychology, self-assessment is a promising approach: “subjective ability is often considered a core belief that is the foundation of human motivation, performance accomplishments, and emotional well-being, and can therefore positively influence effort expenditure and task persistence, especially in the case of obstacles”(Rosman, Mayer & Krampen, 2015, p. 742) . The literature on information literacy assessment repeatedly shows that self-reporting is not a substitute for the examination of people’s actual information skills (Mahmood, 2013; Walsh, 2009). A major complaint against self-assessment is the lack of validity of this measure. The literature reported that people inflated their information skills: they were over confident in reporting their competencies compared to their actual performance. This behavior is referred to as Dunning-Kruger Effect. The Dunning-Kruger Effect was proposed by Justin Kruger and David Dunning of Cornell University. They conducted four studies in the areas of humor, logical reasoning, and English grammar, in which they asked participants to self-assess their ability and test performance. The studies found that the lowest performing participants overestimated their own abilities and believed that their abilities were above-average. On the other hand, the highest performing participants underestimated their abilities. It was also found that incompetent individuals were less likely to recognize competence or expertise in others (Folk, in press). Based on

FAQs

What is the purpose of this systematic review?

To collect and synthesize empirical evidence on whether the Dunning-Kruger Effect exists in the domain of information literacy by comparing self-reported and demonstrated IL skills.

How many studies are included, and what language are they in?

The review analyzes 53 English-language studies that assess and compare participants’ self-reported and demonstrated information literacy skills.

What do the findings suggest about calibration of IL skills?

The review concludes there is no calibration between perceived and actual IL skills: in most cases, low performers overestimate their abilities in self-assessments.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by jay