Understanding and managing the Self-Wise during a healthcare crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought an interesting yet worrisome phenomenon to the fore. A segment of the population, which we call the Self-Wise, seems to exhibit an inflated sense of self-expertise relative to domain experts, which - combined with a lack of trust in the latter - leads them to ignore or reject expert advice. We argue and demonstrate that this phenomenon is distinct from other "illusory superiority" phenomena, most notably Dunning-Kruger and Lake Wobegon.