February 26, 2009
Unskilled and Unaware of It
When asked, most individuals will describe themselves as better-than-average in areas such as leadership, social skills, written expression, or just about any flavor of savvy where the individual has an interest. This tendency of the average person to believe he or she is better-than-average is known as the “above-average effect,” and it flies in the face of logic… by definition, descriptive statistics says that it is impossible absurdly improbable for a majority of people to be above average. It follows, therefore, that a large number of the self-described “above average” individuals are in fact below average in those areas, and they are simply unaware of their incompetence.
The post is from 2006, but I found it fascinating. (via Twitter)
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This reminds me of a quote by then New Mexico Congressman Manuel Lujan:
“The problem in New Mexico is that half the people make less than the median income.”
I generaly recommend Bad Science by Ben Goldacre to everyone but it’s particularly relevant here as it references the study mentioned in the article. This inability by the incompetent to detect competence or lack thereof has partly caused the distrust of science and led to the great bogus health scares of recent years and the rush to ineffectual alternative therapies.
This reminds me of the Oracle of Delphi who claimed Socrates was the wisest of men because he claimed to possess no wisdom at all.