Just How Smart Are You?

We try and try again to convince ourselves and others around us that we’re clearly different from the rest. The aptly named “better-than-average effect” describes the tendency of most people to judge themselves to be harder workers, smarter investors, better lovers, cleverer storytellers, kinder friends, and more competent parents. A wide variety of studies have shown that across the board, no matter what the ability in question, only the most minute fraction of people are willing to describe themselves as “below average.” Ninety percent of us believe ourselves to be in the top 10 percent in terms of overall intelligence and ability. At the very least, we have to congratulate ourselves on our creative statistics. This phenomenon is also sometimes known as the “Lake Wobegon effect,” after the fictional town described by radio show host Garrison Keillor as a place where “all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” In our minds, it seems, we are all proud citizens of Lake Wobegon.

—The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar