You may have noticed this: most people think THEY are smarter, more often correct, more honest, better drivers, et al. than the “average” person. This is called illusory superiority, “a cognitive bias whereby individuals overestimate their own qualities and abilities, relative to others… Other terms include superiority bias, leniency error… and the Lake Wobegon effect (named after Garrison Keillor’s fictional town where ‘all the children are above average’). The phrase ‘illusory superiority’ was first used by Van Yperen and Buunk in 1991.”
But why is it that on a scale of one to 10, you probably think you’re a seven?
According to “David Dunning, a psychologist at Cornell who has studied the effect for decades:
“We realize the external traits and circumstances that guide other people’s actions, ‘but when it comes to us, we think it’s all about our intention, our effort, our desire, our agency — we think we sort of float above all these kinds of constraints'”
From here: “A closely related bias is the Dunning-Kruger effect, where incompetent or unskilled people fail to recognise their own incompetency (of course, I’m sure you’re not incompetent or unskilled, so this one doesn’t apply to you…)”
It may be best summarized in this one-minute video by John Cleese about being stupid.
Dunning-Kruger has another aspect, however. “Conversely, highly skilled individuals tend to underestimate their relative competence, erroneously assuming that tasks which are easy for them are also easy for others.” This, actually, was the phenomenon I am most fascinated by.
I shared an office with this library colleague when I first started working as a librarian, and when I had a question I could not figure out, I’d ask for help. She would say, a lot, “Oh, that’s EASY.” It drove me crazy on two levels: 1) obviously, it wasn’t EASY for me, because I needed help, and 2) she was constantly diminishing her own expertise in this manner.
So, some of us aren’t as smart as we think we are. Others of us are actually smarter, but pshaw it off.
***
TED talk – Kathryn Schulz: On being wrong
I love that John Cleese clip.
One of the ways this manifests in my life is when people assume that because high school was easy,college will be easy (or “would have been easy”).
Not the same beast, not even a little bit.
I don’t want to get political on this site, but I wonder how this concept would work if we used it to measure some of our politicians?!
This is fascinating! I watched John Cleese (very amusing) and read about the Dunning-Kruger effect. We used to call it a “superiority complex.” Oh, and by the way, I’m a 10! lol just kidding!
Leslie
abcw team
INCREDIBLE and INFORMATIVE. I loved this post and will be passing it on. I loved the quote, the John Cleese clip and the topic itself. Thank you.
That’s what I like, posts with CONTENT – something that makes you think.
I like that quote.
Guilty of feeling this way now and then.
Very interesting post Roger.
This is so true! But I also noticed that people who are insecure are bragging about their skills. Real skillful people are modest.
Thanks for your kind comment.
Have a great week!
Wil, ABCW Team
What can I say? I really don’t know much, but what I know is this… as I get older I don’t really care what anyone thinks of me. I find that is a lot better than being stressed all the time worrying about what everyone is thinking about my small mind….
|I think that the best way to judge anyone’s intelligence is to judge their awareness. Includes your own, I guess..
Love that quote!
My ABC WEDNESDAY
It is sad, but true! There is a photograph with a parody of a scene in the movie, “The Sixth Sense,” where the Haley Joel Osment character is telling the Bruce Willis character, “I see dumb people… they’re everywhere. They walk around like everyone else. They don’t even know that they’re dumb.” Blessings, my friend!
There is also room for shading here… “book-learning” vs. common sense. Many people I know whose walls are crowded with diplomas and often lacking in simple decency and sensitivity. (I, of course, am soooooo brimming with the milk of freaking human kindness…!) Amy
Don’t get me started! Now I have to think about my response to people and where I mistakenly think my thoughts are superior…
I have been given lots of common sense which may not appear as superior but have kept me from a lot of bad situations…
That quote is awesome. reading your post, another quote just sprang up ’empty vessels make most noise’ maybe not all but most fall in that criterion. Hope I did not end up as one.
Very interesting!
I am far from being perfect, lol ! I am like I am and I have nothing to prove to anybody. Only people who are stupid pretend that they are perfect and know everything and they often suffer from a big minority complex !
Goodmorning Roger
I think that every person is smart is his one way.
For myself, i am not stupid but also not to smart to stop willing to learn. My eager to learn is as great as ever, sometimes it feels even like its stilling growing 😉
Have a nice day!
♫ Mel☺dy ♫ (abc-w-team)
INTERESTING INDEED Roger.
I enjoyed listening to John Cleese, there’s no doubt that he is an exceptionally clever man but also, most humble about his attributes.
I loved Kathryn Schulz’s philosophy about wrong too!
Bertram Russell was, for most of his life an ardent atheist, but suddenly one day decided he was wrong in his views about Christianity and converted to Christianity.
‘A seeing the light moment’.
Best wishes,
Di.
ABCW team.
I liked that video – people are too stupid to realise they are stupid. Also, the point you made at the end – that’s what I read in a parenting article. When a child is struggling with something and we say ‘Oh that’s easy’ we do exactly the two things you pointed out. Enjoyed your post.
Interesting. You can count on a big brain like Bertrand Russell to sum it all up perfectly.
When I was a fifth grader, I received a certificate for having the best completed safety booklet. I thought that couldn’t be right because I made 3 errors. Surely, the smarter kids in class had less errors or a perfect score. It took me many years to accept that I deserved the prize. Funny how that went.
Well said! The Cleese clip is a keeper.
If human characteristics can be mapped to a 0-to-10 scale, my own self-estimations will tend to cluster around 4.9.
some people always think they are better than others, is that illusion Superiority>
Roger, about my post, I too think we are all intertwined. The quote is a lot to take in and contemplating it is a wise thing to do.
Ann
O, that’s a great Russell quote. Indeed, there is no shortage of “over-confident” fools around 🙂 As for that library colleague of yours, I too would feel rather irritated if someone were to keep saying to me – Oh, that’s easy!