Superiority bias facts for kids

Superiority bias is when people think they are better than others, even when it's not really true. They often think they have more good qualities and skills than they actually do, and they might not notice their own weaknesses as much as they should.

Other names for this idea include:

• Illusory superiority
• The above average effect
• The primus inter pares effect (which means "first among equals")
• The Lake Wobegon effect

This last name comes from a fictional town where "all the children are above average."

What is Superiority Bias?

This idea of thinking you're better than average has been seen in many parts of life. For example:

• At school: Students might think they are smarter or perform better on tests than they actually are.
• At work: People might believe they are better at their jobs than their co-workers.
• In social life: People might think they are more popular or have better personalities (like being more honest or confident) than others.

It also shows up when people judge their skills in everyday tasks.

Sometimes, people might misunderstand what "average" means. But even when studies are very clear about what "average" means, most people still rate themselves as better. This happens because people often interpret questions in a way that makes them look good.

How Our Minds Play Tricks

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

You might have heard of the Dunning–Kruger effect. It's related to superiority bias. In some studies, people were given tasks like solving puzzles or checking grammar. Then, they were asked to guess how well they did compared to everyone else.

What researchers found was interesting:

• Almost everyone thought they did better than average.
• The people who did the worst on the tasks were the ones who thought they did the best! They had the biggest "superiority bias."

Why? Because if you're not good at something, you might also not be good at knowing what "good" looks like in that area. When these low-scoring people were given some training, they not only got better at the tasks, but they also became more accurate about how they ranked compared to others.

School and Job Performance

This bias shows up a lot in school and work.

• In one survey at the University of Nebraska, 68% of professors thought they were in the top 25% for teaching ability.
• At Stanford University, 87% of MBA students believed their grades were better than the middle score of their class.

This bias can also explain why some things happen in the real world. For example:

• Many people trade stocks because they think they are smarter and will make more money than others.
• Many lawsuits go to court because lawyers on both sides might think they are more likely to win.

How We See Ourselves and Others

Friends and Popularity

One of the first studies on superiority bias was done in 1976 with the SAT exams (a big test for high school students in the USA). Students were asked to rate themselves.

• 70% of students thought they were better than average at leadership.
• 85% thought they were better than average at getting along with others.
• 25% even thought they were in the top 1% for getting along with others!

Studies also show that people tend to rate their friends higher than other people they know. When it comes to popularity, people often think they are more popular than they actually are, especially compared to their own friends.

Happy Relationships

Superiority bias also appears in how people view their relationships.

• Many people think their own relationships are better than other people's relationships.
• They also tend to think that most other people are happy in their relationships.

The happier people felt about their own relationship, the more they believed it was better than others.

Healthy Habits

People often believe they are healthier than others. In one study, people were asked how often they and their friends did healthy and unhealthy things.

• People said they did healthy things more often than others.
• They also said they did unhealthy things less often than others.

This was true for both what they had done in the past and what they expected to do in the future.

Driving Skills

Many studies have looked at driving ability.

• In a study of students in Sweden and the United States, most people thought they were safer and more skilled drivers than average. For example, 93% of US students and 69% of Swedish students thought they were in the top 50% for driving skill.
• Another study found that almost 80% of drivers thought they were better than the average driver. Very few people thought they were below average.

Thinking We're Not Biased

It's common for people to describe themselves in positive ways compared to others. This even includes thinking they are less likely to be biased than other people. This is called the "bias blind spot"—meaning we're blind to our own biases!

See also

In Spanish: Superioridad ilusoria para niños