Our Flawed Self-Assessments

[Rayaan]

We humans tend to feel fairly confident in how we perceive ourselves.

But in the field of psychology, it's been demonstrated that, whether we like it or not, we are most likely far worse at self-assessment than we think we are. Our ability of self-assessment, although maybe it is superior to that of other animals, is one that has shown to be flawed in interesting (and even quite surprising) ways.

For example, one thing is that we tend to overestimate our positive qualities and underestimate the negative ones. This is known as "illusory superiority," or the "above average effect," amongst various other names.

"Illusory superiority is a cognitive bias whereby individuals overestimate their own qualities and abilities, relative to others. This is evident in a variety of areas including intelligence, performance on tasks or tests, and the possession of desirable characteristics or personality traits. It is one of many positive illusions relating to the self, and is a phenomenon studied in social psychology." - Wikipedia

A more specific case of the illusory superiority bias is the Freddy-Krueger effect. What?! Whoops, my bad. I apologize. It's called the Dunning-Kruger effect:

"The Dunning-Kruger effect, named after David Dunning and Justin Kruger of Cornell University, occurs where people fail to adequately assess their level of competence — or specifically, their incompetence — at a task and thus consider themselves much more competent than everyone else. This lack of awareness is attributed to their lower level of competence robbing them of the ability to critically analyse their performance, leading to a significant overestimate of themselves. Put more crudely, they're too stupid to realize they're stupid." - RationalWiki

Here are some of the original materials on the subject:

Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments

Flawed Self-Assessment: Implications for Health, Education, and the Workplace


Come to think of it, what would ever make anyone perceive that perhaps we are all confident idiots?

No wonder there was all this fervor about "Know thyself" for the ancients.

[The Valkyrie]

Let me just respond to this by saying, while most self assessments performed by people are, indeed, flawed, my self-assessment that I'm bloody awesome is 100% accurate.

And, to back it up, all those who fear me agree completely.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I'll pay attention to criticisms of my self-assessment when such criticisms come from people who begin to approach Becc's level of awesomeness, not before.

I suspect it'll be a helluva long wait.

Boru

[Jackalope]

I may not be as awesome as I think, but I'm still pretty awesome.

[Minimalist]

I recall reading a survey not that long ago where something like 90% of drivers considered themselves "above average," Rayaan.

[The Valkyrie]

In all seriousness, though.

This is a very interesting subject.

I'll take time to read the articles.

Thank you for posting.

[bennyboy]

Korean drivers

/thread

[Rayaan]

I recall reading a survey not that long ago where something like 90% of drivers considered themselves "above average," Rayaan.

That true. I just googled that now and read the following:

1. There is no shortage of confident people in the world: One of the best-documented biases of human thinking is the "better-than-average bias," which concerns the almost universal tendency of people to regard themselves as better than the average person in virtually any domain of competence. For example, ask people whether their driving skills are better than average, and 85% of respondents will say "Yes;" same goes for sense of humor, leadership talent, and singing ability.

Moreover, even when people are told about the better-than-average bias, and asked whether it applies to them, 80% of respondents say "No." In addition, neuroscientific research shows that optimism is a pervasive judgment bias, which causes most people to underestimate the feasibility of negative events happening to them. The bottom line is that most people have more confidence than they need: We are just not as great as we think we are.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/23/busine...e-success/

More surveys of drivers (links):
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/wiki/roa..._of_skill/

---

In all seriousness, though.

This is a very interesting subject.

I'll take time to read the articles.

Thank you for posting.

You're welcome.

[ManMachine]

We humans tend to feel fairly confident in how we perceive ourselves.

But in the field of psychology, it's been demonstrated that, whether we like it or not, we are most likely far worse at self-assessment than we think we are. Our ability of self-assessment, although maybe it is superior to that of other animals, is one that has shown to be flawed in interesting (and even quite surprising) ways.

For example, one thing is that we tend to overestimate our positive qualities and underestimate the negative ones. This is known as "illusory superiority," or the "above average effect," amongst various other names.

"Illusory superiority is a cognitive bias whereby individuals overestimate their own qualities and abilities, relative to others. This is evident in a variety of areas including intelligence, performance on tasks or tests, and the possession of desirable characteristics or personality traits. It is one of many positive illusions relating to the self, and is a phenomenon studied in social psychology." - Wikipedia

A more specific case of the illusory superiority bias is the Freddy-Krueger effect. What?! Whoops, my bad. I apologize. It's called the Dunning-Kruger effect:

"The Dunning-Kruger effect, named after David Dunning and Justin Kruger of Cornell University, occurs where people fail to adequately assess their level of competence — or specifically, their incompetence — at a task and thus consider themselves much more competent than everyone else. This lack of awareness is attributed to their lower level of competence robbing them of the ability to critically analyse their performance, leading to a significant overestimate of themselves. Put more crudely, they're too stupid to realize they're stupid." - RationalWiki

Here are some of the original materials on the subject:

Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments

Flawed Self-Assessment: Implications for Health, Education, and the Workplace


Come to think of it, what would ever make anyone perceive that perhaps we are all confident idiots?

No wonder there was all this fervor about "Know thyself" for the ancients.

Illusion to delusion to superiority to anthropocentrism. I've been banging this particular drum for years (it now feels like decades).

Language has become a cage that has locked us behind bars of ideology from which we can no longer break free. Our anthropocentrism has driven us to believe in something we call progress, measured by how far we can get away from the stink of our own shit. We are impoverished in our search for meaningful intellectual enlightenment by our hubris, we are blinded from seeing our true, animal-nature by our belief in 'progress', we are deluded in our belief we are somehow different to all other species that we share this tiny rock with.

MM

[Rayaan]

Illusion to delusion to superiority to anthropocentrism. I've been banging this particular drum for years (it now feels like decades).

Language has become a cage that has locked us behind bars of ideology from which we can no longer break free. Our anthropocentrism has driven us to believe in something we call progress, measured by how far we can get away from the stink of our own shit. We are impoverished in our search for meaningful intellectual enlightenment by our hubris, we are blinded from seeing our true, animal-nature by our belief in 'progress', we are deluded in our belief we are somehow different to all other species that we share this tiny rock with.

MM

Well, to be frank, I don't agree that the belief in progress is really an illusory belief. In some ways I think we did make some progress over the course of human civilization. Maybe some people just overestimate how much they will progress, but I don't think you can use my original post to argue that progress itself is an illusion.

I guess the main message of my post is that there are inherent and substantive limitations in self-knowledge. There is only so much that we can understand about ourselves. It is certainly possible that some our self-assessments are indeed pretty much on target. However, the truth slowly starts to become more and more indefinite the more we go deeper into ourselves. And this idea, as I've come to believe, suggests that we shouldn't be too confident in what we think about ourselves.