Compared to most other people, how intelligent do you think you are? Or how attractive do you perceive yourself to be? The overwhelming majority of individuals would answer these questions with a great deal of optimism. Most think they are cleverer and more attractive than the average man or woman. This blog discusses research that shows people tend to have a very positive view of themselves and what the implications of this bias towards liking oneself may be. The opening questions are a good example of what is known as ‘the above average effect’. Reseachers ask people a question like ‘Compared to other college students, how clever do you think you are?’ and get them to rank themselves into a percentile category. Essentially, do you think you are about average intelligence (50%)? Very clever (77%)? Or plain stupid (5%)? What do people think? Westerners tend to rate themselves well above average. Some obviously will be above average for looks or intelligence, or maybe even both (Greg Moorlock), but not everybody can be. Life isn’t fair like that. So a lot of people are conning themselves and think they are better than they actually are. This effect is well replicated; University lecturers think they do more work than their peers, drivers think they are much better motorists than they are and so on.
The question that stems from this is whether people do actually believe they are that good. Or when asked such questions, do they just give themselves the benefit of the doubt and rate highly for the sake of it. A study by Williams and Gilovich (2008) suggests people really do believe in it and are willing to bet on it. The researchers first asked participants to rate their creativity, maturity, intelligence and positivity. As you’d expect, participants tended to rank themselves a lot higher than the average. Next, participants were given some money and asked to partake in some gambling on a mock lottery draw and to win as much money as possible. The method is fairly complicated to explain here, but in part of the experiment participants were asked to gamble on the likelihood of a randomly drawn student being above them on the 4 traits they had rated earlier. If we really do believe that we are above average then we would expect to see participants using this belief when trying to take home as much money as possible. Participants tended to behave in this way. They consistently bet that the random student would be less clever, mature, intelligent or positive.
What this shows is that a) people probably really do believe they are better than most people in a lot of things, and b) this belief is likely to influence behaviour. Generally this probably isn’t a bad thing, as confidence can be useful. But there are times when individuals probably do grossly over-estimate their abilities and this has negative consequences. Trying to wing exams or presentations because you think your intelligence will pull you through is a fairly good example. A slightly different example is how we can often feel hard done by in life because we didn’t get what we deserved; we believe we worked harder than others on a project for example.
The above average effect can be described as a form of self serving bias. In the sense that it allows us to see ourselves in a positive light. A further example of a self serving bias is the tendency to attribute success to our own abilities or effort and failure to external factors like chance or other people. If you do well in an exam you think it is because you prepared well. If you do badly in the next one, all of a sudden it is more likely to be because it was a particularly hard one and not your preparation that was important. Mezulis et al. (2004) took a look at all the studies that examined this attribution bias and came to the conclusion that it clearly exists and it is a very strong effect. Everybody seems to do it. All across the globe individuals tend to attribute success to themselves, but then shy away from responsibility when things don’t turn out quite so rosy.
Furthermore, some argue it is a very adaptive bias to possess. Perhaps if we were too realistic about how good or bad we really are it would all be a bit depressing. Interestingly, in Mezulis’s review the researchers found that the self serving attribution bias was smaller in depressed participants than non depressed. Researchers have also shown that the size of this bias is associated with greater happiness, lower rates of depression, as well as health implications in the form of immune system function and even life expectancy. Being a bit big headed isn’t all that bad then as it probably makes us feel like coherent, successful and likeable people who are doing well in life.
Yet, this liking for oneself obviously can hit snags. Not knowing when you are in the wrong or being unfair seems to be one of mans great fortays. We all have friends or colleagues who just seem to think too much about themselves, never able to be humble or put their hands up and say they are wrong. They take themselves too seriously and because of it they are annoying and if only they could see this they would probably have better friendships and lead happier lives. If only.
Such people are testament to how the self serving bias is also likely to be particularly troublesome when individuals are in need of settling arguments or negotiating. George Lowenstein and colleagues have shown that when arguing we process and use information for our own needs, we are terribly biased towards our own point of view and because of this co-operating or settling disputes with others can be difficult sometimes. For example, if evidence backs up our claims we believe it’s source is more reliable than if it counters our argument and we generally think our points of view hold more validity than others. And of course, all of this is far from ideal when trying to settle disagreements or disputes.
Application
Knowing all of this is interesting, but knowing how we can avoid being so biased may be even more useful. Lowenstein et al. report that after informing their participants about these types of biases and then asking them to write about weaknesses in their arguments, individuals were more likely to behave in a co-operative manner. So, every time you have an argument; attend a lecture on self serving biases and write an essay about the weaknesses it posseses. Alternatively, having now read this blog, in the future try to consider both sides of the coin and others points of view more….
Know your limitations, weaknesses and be prepared to accept you might have failed and it is your fault. People that don’t have these qualities are really annoying.
If your friends think they are attractive but they blatantly aren’t, then please tell them the truth and help to put a stop to this above average delusion.
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