Does this look familiar, in anything from NBN, Global Warming a.k.a. Climate Change, pick any one of our recent Defence (non) purchases, GFC bailout?
Dunning
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which unskilled people make poor decisions and reach erroneous conclusions, but their incompetence denies them the metacognitive ability to recognize their mistakes.[1] The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their ability as above average, much higher than it actually is, while the highly skilled underrate their own abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority. Actual competence may weaken self-confidence, as competent individuals may falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding. As Kruger and Dunning conclude, "the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others" (p. 1127).[2]
The effect is about paradoxical defects in cognitive ability, both in oneself and as one compares oneself to others.
Maybe it could take on a sub title for us antipodeans: The Dullard-Duck Effect.