Taken at face value, what the DK data shows without autocorrelation is that more skilled people are, in fact, better at evaluating themselves than unskilled peo

Taken at face value, what the DK data shows without autocorrelation is that more skilled people are, in fact, better at evaluating themselves than unskilled people. The correlation is positive. It's only when you introduce the difference in score vs. assessment (autocorrelation) that the correlation appears negative ("skilled people evaluate themselves as less skilled than they are").