Dilbert is right. Managers are incompetent, worse even than the managers themselves realize. That was the conclusion of a well-known study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in December 1999, long before The Office premiered. “Not only do incompetent people reach incompetent conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it,” writes Justin Kruger who with his former professor, David Dunning, authored the study at Cornell. This conclusion is now called the “Dunning-Kruger effect” in honor of the two.