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The internet amplifies our voice, but that also means the ignorant, the silly, and the just plain wrong things we say are amplified too. Nowhere is this more hilariously evident than in the Facebook group 'People Incorrectly Correcting Other People,' where members document overconfident know-it-alls self-owning in public. Consider this list of the group’s most recent posts a cautionary tale about fact-checking yourself — and a reminder that sometimes, silence really is golden.

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    According to Dr. Don A. Moore, a professor and the Lorraine Tyson Mitchell Chair in Leadership and Communication at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, overconfidence is "the mother of all psychological biases."

    "First, overconfidence is one of the largest and most ubiquitous of the many biases to which human judgment is vulnerable," Moore said. "For example, 93 percent of American drivers claim to be better than the median, which is statistically impossible."

    "Another way in which people can indicate their confidence about something is by providing a 90 percent confidence interval around some estimate; when they do so, the truth often falls inside their confidence intervals less than 50 percent of the time, suggesting they did not deserve to be 90 percent confident of their accuracy," the professor added.

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    #3

    Online group shaming overconfident know-it-alls incorrectly correcting grammar in a social media comment thread.

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    Emilu
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I don't normally congratulate the grammar ones (even though I like good grammar myself; I admit I'm not perfect) but lel. Go green person.

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    "Among many other things, overconfidence has been blamed for the sinking of the Titanic, the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, the loss of Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia, the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 and the Great Recession that followed it, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico," Moore continued.

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    "Overconfidence may contribute to excessive rates of trading in the stock market, high rates of entrepreneurial failure, legal disputes, political partisanship, and even war."

    #7

    Online group shaming overconfident know-it-alls incorrectly correcting facts about strawberries growing on trees.

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    sfgothgirl
    Community Member
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    5 days ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The house where I grew up would like a word. We had strawberries, and none of them came from trees

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    The second reason why Moore calls overconfidence the mother of all biases is because it "gives the other decision-making biases teeth."

    "If we were appropriately humble about psychological vulnerabilities, we would be better able to protect ourselves from the errors to which human nature makes us prone," he highlighted. "Instead, an excessive faith in ourselves and our judgment means that we too often ignore our vulnerability to bias and error. Decades of research on judgment and decision-making have documented these heuristics and the biases they create. They include, but are not limited to, availability, representativeness, anchoring, framing, reference dependence, and egocentrism."

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    So what should we do if we don't want to end up thinking we're better than everyone else? Should we try to reduce our confidence (and risk falling into self-doubt), or should we convince ourselves that what others think of us doesn't matter and attempt to fail our way to success? Moore believes the answer lies in the middle.

    "This Goldilocks zone of confidence is where rational beliefs meet reality," he said. "It is fundamentally based on truth and good sense. It is built on beliefs that can be justified by evidence and honest self-examination. It steers between the perilous cliff of overconfidence and the quicksand of underconfidence. It is not always easy to find this narrow path; it takes honest self-reflection, level-headed analysis, and the courage to resist wishful thinking."

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    #14

    Screenshot of an online group shaming an overconfident know-it-all who incorrectly corrects a post about soda plans.

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    BewilderedBanana
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    someone got confused between the 1900s and the 19th century (which was indeed 1800—1899)... not entirely sure why though :)

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    Some might say that the middle way is the path to mediocrity. But it has long been valued.

    In Nicomachean Ethics, for example, Aristotle argues that all virtues lie between extremes of deficiency and excess. He compares virtues to health, suggesting that just as both too little and too much physical exercise can destroy one's strength, both deficiency and excess can destroy virtue.

    Courage, for instance, is a virtue that lies between a deficient condition—cowardice—and an excessive one—rashness. A coward has too much fear and flees from all danger, while a rash person has too little fear and confronts all danger. A courageous person, by contrast, judges which dangers should be confronted and which should not, and feels the appropriate amount of fear.

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    #20

    Manga characters compare lifting 100kg of steel versus feathers with overconfident correction in an online group.

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    MicrowaveGoddess
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    actually, the feathers are heavier. cause you gotta live with the weight of what you did to those poor birds

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    This middle ground, Moore said, "requires that you know your limitations and what opportunities are not worth pursuing. It requires that you act confidently based on what you know, even if it means taking a stand, making a bet, or speaking up for a viewpoint that is unpopular. But it also requires the willingness to consider the possibility that you are wrong, to listen to evidence, and to change your mind. This is a rare combination of courage and intellectual humility, which leads to actively open-minded thinking. It takes just the right amount of confidence."

    #22

    Text conversation where one person confidently corrects another about wolves and dogs, highlighting overconfidence in online group discussions.

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    Rafael
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    While technically correct, I think bro should've let this one pass. The lady was just trying to make a compliment, what a shame to turn that into an argument!

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    #23

    Woman in a store with comment thread shaming overconfident know-it-alls who incorrectly correct others online

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    arthbach
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The vast majority of people who are blind are not born blind. They lose their sight due to genetic, illness or accident. They are used to turning to look at people when speaking to them, looking in the direction they are pointing etc. It's automatic. The majority of people who are blind have some small amount of sight. Light levels can make a big difference as to whether they can use this remaining sight.

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    #24

    Screenshot of an online group shaming overconfident know-it-alls who incorrectly correct others about silent letters.

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    Ace
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    TBF at least some of these so-called silent letters can sometimes be voiced by some speakers. I definitely sound the t in tsunami, for example. maybe it's just from having spoken German for such a while that I've adopted the TZ sound, I dunno. But surely everyone knows that knight is pronounced kanigget? ;-)

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    #31

    Man in sauna with smartwatch, sharing incorrect temperature info and facing online group shaming for overconfident corrections.

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    Mreoww
    Community Member
    5 days ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    100 degrees Celsius is frightening. I was practically melting during the heat wave when it was just 40 degrees Celsius.

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    #35

    Online group shaming overconfident know-it-alls incorrectly correcting evolution science with misleading comments.

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    Mreoww
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I’m pretty sure they just contradicted themselves. How do species evolve without changing???

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    #36

    One-star book review shaming overconfident know-it-alls who incorrectly correct printed backward manga book.

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    Lukas (he/him, it/its)
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The sad thing is if they opened it "correctly", ie, how an English reader would with the spine on the left, most manga have a page printed explaining how manga are meant to be read. Maybe they can't read at all?

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    #46

    Screenshot of an online group shaming overconfident know-it-alls who incorrectly correct others in comments.

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    AnSi Bae
    Community Member
    4 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    So in their incredible wisdom, when have you _earned_ the title? Do you need some kind of certificate? 🤔

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    #50

    White Nissan Sentra with Iowa license plate behind a police car, featured in an online group shaming overconfident know-it-alls.

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    CF
    Community Member
    4 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The last number looks suspiciously like it wants to curve into a 3, not a 2. I could be imagining that, but if the plate was a true match, why not show the whole plate?

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    #51

    Deviled eggs staged on a table with social media comments showing overconfident know-it-alls incorrectly correcting the term.

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    kzys59pcrp
    Community Member
    4 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Some people did call them doubled eggs because they thought calling them deviled eggs was evil.

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    #55

    Online group shaming overconfident know-it-alls who incorrectly correct others in social media comments.

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    David
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Ouch. If only they had named the product after what it is supposed to do, people wouldn't get confused. /S

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    #56

    A year-long series of sunset photos from the same spot, showing nature's change, shared in online group shaming know-it-alls.

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    Apatheist Account2
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Not sure this one belongs - I don't know what the tree is, but they seem to be making a valid correction.

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    #58

    Alt text: Online group shaming overconfident know-it-alls incorrectly correcting others on baking temperature and Celsius facts.

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    David
    Community Member
    5 days ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This on confuses me because a potato will not bake at 25 C or F. That's 77F. My house was over 80F today. Nothing baked itself. Not even the potatoes that were on my counter.

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    #60

    Screenshot of an online group shaming an overconfident know-it-all for incorrectly correcting historical dates.

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    Don't listen to me
    Community Member
    5 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. See Google for more info. But what that reply means i have no idea!

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    #61

    Online group shaming overconfident know-it-alls incorrectly correcting currency in birthday dog cake post.

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    Boo
    Community Member
    5 days ago

    This comment has been deleted.

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    #64

    Facebook group conversation shaming overconfident know-it-alls incorrectly correcting origins of McDonald's in an online discussion.

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    Bill Swallow
    Community Member
    4 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Which McDonald's origin are we talking about? When the McDonald brothers opened their stand, or after Ray Kroc bought the name and started franchising it?

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