Some time ago I tried to convince a few osteopaths that "listening" techniques are pseudoscience. My arguments were solid and based on scientific articles.

These osteopaths however claimed that I was wrong and they even tried to convince me of the extreme value of what they called "osteopathic listening" whereby they could detect lesions and diseases just by putting their hands on the body and "listen" to it.

The more scientific arguments I gave, the more they got convinced of their right.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people wrongly overestimate their knowledge or ability in a specific area. This tends to occur because a lack of self-awareness prevents them from accurately assessing their own skills.

According to the researchers, everyone is prone to this effect. This is because no matter how informed or experienced we are, everyone has areas in which they are uninformed and incompetent. You might be smart and skilled in many areas, but no one is an expert at everything.