“I Am Not Sexist:” Application of the Dunning-Kruger Effect to Perceptions of One's Own Sexist Behavior
Faculty Mentor
Amani El-Alayli
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
4-14-2026 9:00 AM
End Date
4-14-2026 11:00 AM
Location
PUB NCR
Primary Discipline of Presentation
Psychology
Abstract
The Dunning-Kruger effect is defined as the tendency of an individual to overestimate their performance on a specific subject when their actual knowledge of it is low. We examined if the Dunning-Kruger effect can also be applied to an individual’s perception of how sexist they are against women. We hypothesized that individuals who viewed as themselves as the most sexist would be the most inaccurate concerning their actual sexism level (believing they are less sexist than they are). In this study, a measure was purposefully designed to assess sexism in 13 hypothetical behaviors (e.g., how likely one is to punish a male versus a female student for violating a dress code). Afterwards, the participants are asked to evaluate how sexist they think their behavior is. We expected that those who were most affected by gender in the hypothetical scenarios (showing the most sexism) would also be the least able to recognize their general level of sexism. We collected data from roughly 250 college student participants and will be preparing the results for this presentation once the data is analyzed.
Recommended Citation
Marshalkin, Angel, "“I Am Not Sexist:” Application of the Dunning-Kruger Effect to Perceptions of One's Own Sexist Behavior" (2026). 2026 Symposium. 40.
https://dc.ewu.edu/srcw_2026/ps_2026/p1_2026/40
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
“I Am Not Sexist:” Application of the Dunning-Kruger Effect to Perceptions of One's Own Sexist Behavior
PUB NCR
The Dunning-Kruger effect is defined as the tendency of an individual to overestimate their performance on a specific subject when their actual knowledge of it is low. We examined if the Dunning-Kruger effect can also be applied to an individual’s perception of how sexist they are against women. We hypothesized that individuals who viewed as themselves as the most sexist would be the most inaccurate concerning their actual sexism level (believing they are less sexist than they are). In this study, a measure was purposefully designed to assess sexism in 13 hypothetical behaviors (e.g., how likely one is to punish a male versus a female student for violating a dress code). Afterwards, the participants are asked to evaluate how sexist they think their behavior is. We expected that those who were most affected by gender in the hypothetical scenarios (showing the most sexism) would also be the least able to recognize their general level of sexism. We collected data from roughly 250 college student participants and will be preparing the results for this presentation once the data is analyzed.
