Twatology

Incidentally, between my bouts of stationery induced mania, I stumbled across something on Wikipedia which crystallised a lot things in the field of one of my pet projects, which I call Twatology.

Being a psychology graduate (oh yes- two degrees, will dance for money) and an actor, I'm obviously interested in people. Now, I found from my degree that the most interesting things in psychology are where things go wrong. What differences in someone's brain, or upbringing, or experiences could cause them to say, hear voices or tear close relatives to shreds without the slightest remorse?

And naturally, the most studied things are, like these I've just mentioned, generally pretty severe defects in humanity. But, for me, a more interesting question that concerns us far more in every day life would be a little less extreme, and the results far more commonplace. What differences in someone's brain, or upbringing, or experiences could cause them to be, for example, really fucking annoying?

Enter Dunning and Kruger, psychologists at Cornell University, who place a huge piece of the twatology puzzle in place with the imaginatively titled Dunning-Kruger Effect. Check out the article and go 'Oh, yeah, that's what that is.' I love little things like this that crystallise things I've long suspected, or in other words, prove that I've been right all along.

The essence of it is beautifully simple. As Charles 'Religious Idiots Will Misunderstand My Theories For Years To Come And Use It As Part of A Ridiculous Circular Argument' Darwin put it: "ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." That is to say, the words 'arrogant' and 'twat' go together like E and mc squared. Which is all rather neat and lovely.

If you can contribute anything to my study of twatology, do email it to me and I'll be eternally grateful.