If someone asks you, ‘who do you think knows you best’, most people would definitely answer themselves. It seems logical, right? We’re with ourselves all the time, so it only makes sense that we would be ones that know each other best. However, research shows that we may not know ourselves as well as we previously thought. When viewing ourselves, there tends to be a lot of bias.
Averages
How would you prove that someone is deluding themselves when they rate their own abilities? This was a question many researchers struggled within early psychology. It is hard to show that a person is deluding themselves because you have to prove they are wrong. You can show they’re wrong about their level in sports, but there are many explanations that make this way of doing things inconsistent. It is extremely hard to prove
In early psychology, when researchers first started testing whether people really knew themselves well, they conducted surveys where they asked people to rate their own abilities in comparison to everybody else’s. They were asked to state whether they were above average or below average on any ability, e.g driving. It was found that 90% of people stated they were above average in their driving ability… which can’t be quite right. It was from these findings that psychologists realized that there were some gaps in people’s knowledge of themselves. Researchers from then on found that people consistently used overrated their circumstances using positive illusions. In general, there are 3 types of positive illusions. These three are over-estimating abilities, over-estimating control, and optimism.
Positive illusions
There are many different positive illusion people use every day, consciously or not. All of them serve to make people have a better impression of themselves than the reality.
Self-serving bias
Self-serving bias is a very common positive illusion I can guarantee everyone has used. Essentially, it means that people will credit themselves for anything good that happens, and will put the blame on something else if it doesn’t go their way. For example, if someone scores well in their math exam, they will credit themselves for studying well and putting in the hours. However, if they don’t score as well on their science exam, they will excuse this by saying ‘oh, the questions were just harder this time’, or ‘I would have studied more if it weren’t for my being sick for a few days’. In this way, people build themselves up when something good happens, and avoid taking the blame for any failures. Self-serving bias allows to beating to pretend they are better than they are and had more impact when things go right.
Selective criticism
Selective criticism is when a person gives criticism of different levels to any kind of statement depending on whether they like it or not. A person is much more likely to simply accept any kind of statement or news they agree with, or simply like the sound of. For example, if a research paper agrees with your thought on a topic, you will not want to look for criticism as much. However, if a statement goes against your beliefs, you are much more likely to criticize or find flaws in the argument. For example, if a piece of research has findings that go against your beliefs., you may be quick to say to see any flaws or biases that are present, which wouldn’t come as easily if the study’s findings agreed with you. The brain does this to maintain the belief that it is correct, and wants to avoid cognitive dissonance. This way, people maintain a much positive mindset by trying to defend their own beliefs and opinions.
Confirmation bias
This is probably the one you’ve heard before. Confirmation bias is when a person confirms their own beliefs by seeing only signs that show they are correct. An example of confirmation bias is thinking there are no black swans if you’ve seen only white ones. Every time you see a white swan, the belief that there are no black swans in supported, despite there being no real connection between the two. The brain uses this principle to keep thinking positive. The brain focuses on all the positive things happening around, and even ignores anything viewed as negative. For example, the games of tennis you won prove you’re a good tennis player. The games you lost are forgotten. In this way, the brain uses confirmation bias to overestimate your abilities and positive attributes.