Malaysian Social Media: Where Dunning-Kruger Comes to Live

Malaysian Social Media: Where Dunning-Kruger Comes to Live

“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” — Charles Bukowski

There is a scientific concept called the Dunning-Kruger Effect. It basically says that people who know very little about something often believe they know a lot, while people who actually know a lot are usually more careful, more humble, and less loud.

Now, if the scientists who discovered this effect had spent just one week reading Malaysian social media comment sections, they could have completed their research much faster.

Because Malaysian social media is not just a place for sharing photos, memes, and food pictures anymore. It has become the National Stadium of Confident Ignorance, where everyone is an expert, nobody is wrong, and facts are treated like optional DLC content you don’t really need to install.

Open any post about economics, politics, health, education, religion, language, traffic, or even how to fry an egg, and you will find at least 50 experts in the comments. These experts have never studied the subject, never worked in the field, never read a proper book about it — but they have something more powerful than knowledge.

They have confidence.

Malaysian social media runs on a very simple formula:

Read headline → Get angry → Become expert → Write long comment → Refuse to change opinion → Sleep peacefully.

The less people know, the more confident they sound. The more people know, the more careful they sound. Unfortunately, social media rewards confidence, not accuracy. So the loudest person often looks like the smartest person — even if they are just confidently wrong.

You can see this everywhere.

Doctor explains medical issue → Comment: “Doctor also human, can be wrong.”
Economist explains policy → Comment: “This is basic common sense.”
Engineer explains infrastructure → Comment: “Why so complicated? Just build properly.”
Teacher explains education → Comment: “Last time we study also okay what.”

There is a very special phrase Malaysians love to use when they don’t understand something: “It’s just common sense.”

“Why economy so bad?” — Just reduce price.
“Why traffic jam?” — Just build more roads.
“Why hospital crowded?” — Just build more hospitals.
“Why salary low?” — Just increase salary.
“Why corruption?” — Just stop corruption.

The word “just” has solved more imaginary problems in Malaysian comment sections than actual policy has solved in the real world.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is very powerful on social media because social media removes embarrassment. In real life, if you talk nonsense in a room full of experts, someone will correct you, and you will feel paiseh and keep quiet. On social media, you can talk nonsense, find 20 people who agree with you, and now you feel like a thought leader.

Social media also creates the illusion of research. People think watching three TikTok videos, reading two Facebook posts, and seeing one infographic means they have “done research.” That’s not research. That’s scrolling.

Real research is boring. It involves reading long things, checking sources, comparing data, and sometimes discovering that your original opinion was wrong. Nobody likes that. It’s much easier to watch a 60-second video that confirms what you already believe and then say, “I already study this issue.”

Another Malaysian social media habit is confusing opinion with expertise.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion. But if your opinion is about how to make teh tarik, that’s fine. If your opinion is about how to run a national economy, build a railway system, manage a pandemic, reform education, and rewrite the constitution — maybe we should at least check whether you know what you’re talking about.

But social media is the only place in the world where:

• A random guy with anime profile picture
• A makcik selling kuih online
• A university professor
• A bot account
• A conspiracy theorist
• And someone’s uncle who still types in ALL CAPS

…all have the same sized comment box and the same level of confidence.

So to the average reader, everyone looks equally credible. This is how expertise dies — not because experts disappeared, but because experts and loud people look the same on a phone screen.

And here is the most dangerous part of the Dunning-Kruger Effect: people who don’t know that they don’t know are very difficult to teach. Because in their mind, they are already the smart one.

Try correcting someone politely on social media and watch what happens:

• “Who are you?”
• “You think you very smart?”
• “Don’t be arrogant.”
• “This is my opinion.”
• “Agree to disagree.”

“Agree to disagree” is sometimes just a polite way of saying, “I will continue being wrong but peacefully.”

But let’s be fair. This is not only a Malaysian problem. This is a global social media problem. The difference is Malaysians add a special ingredient to the mix: kopitiam-level confidence.

Malaysia is a country where people can discuss geopolitics, macroeconomics, constitutional law, and vaccine science with the same confidence they use to recommend the best nasi kandar.

So yes, the Dunning-Kruger Effect is alive and well.

It has a Facebook account.
It has a Twitter account.
It has a TikTok account.
And it is very active in Malaysian comment sections.

The scary part is not that stupid people exist. Stupid people have always existed. The scary part is that now, stupid people have WiFi, a comment section, and an audience.

And the smartest people?

They are reading the comments, shaking their heads, and not typing anything — because they know something the loud people don’t:

The more you learn, the more you realise how much you don’t know.