5 ms·

I'm impressed with how honest people are. Most answers were in the 40 to 60 percent range, which is about where it should be mathematically of course. Two big

by axaxs 5y ago

I'm impressed with how honest people are. Most answers were in the 40 to 60 percent range, which is about where it should be mathematically of course. Two big outliers I saw was that apparently everyone thinks they have more common sense than average, and also more polite than average.

mathattack 5y ago
Most people think they are better drivers than average.
- jedberg 5y ago
  Right, but some of us know we are. :)
jedberg 5y ago
77% think they are smarter than average.
- mateo411 5y ago
  That's part of the Lake Woebegone effect. For me it's different, I think I'm smarter than average 77% of the time.
  - Nevermark 5y ago
    I believe in this. Smarts are more like a distribution curve, even in a single individual. There are areas I am in the 1 percentile, I think I can say without exaggeration. Those areas I seem to have insights in without effort, coupled with thousands of hours of focus. But I experience a high cost of many things I do very very badly compared to almost EVERY SINGLE PERSON I know. I am not alone in this assessment of myself. Friends & family all agree. My many areas of remarkable incompetence, besides occasionally causing me great shame, make it very clear to me that everyone I know or meet has something to offer, at least to me!
    - msrenee 5y ago
      There's so many facets to intelligence. There's a lot of areas that I'm more competent than most in and I learn very quickly. Then there's things like math where I have plenty of education, but the simplest real-world applications throw me for a loop. Add in frequent blonde moments and I can go from looking like the smartest person in the room to the stupidest in no time.
  - snapcore 5y ago
    My definition of dumb is people who don't agree with me. So it's safe to say I'm basically Einstein ;-)
  - imtringued 5y ago
    Smarter at what? Smarter at the things you are good at of course and there are lots of people who are not good at the things you are good at, so you consider yourself smarter than average. If you asked people if they were smarter at everything than average what would they answer?
- pgreenwood 5y ago
  It could well be true that 77% of people are smarter than average if intelligence is a heavily skewed distribution.
LeoPanthera 5y ago
It says "average" not "median" so it's not necessary for the result to be 50/50 even if everyone was perfectly honest.
- axaxs 5y ago
  When it comes to personality traits/skills, average has to refer to the median. I can't think of a qualitative way to do it otherwise.
re 5y ago
You can sort the results by agreement percent to see which questions are most and least skewed. Interestingly one of the most precisely balanced is "50% of participants think they are better looking than average."
Nition 5y ago
> Most answers were in the 40 to 60 percent range, which is about where it should be mathematically of course. Not necessarily. For instance there's: > 77% of participants think they give less to homeless people than average. Say most people give $0 to homeless people, but 30% of people give some. In that case 77% giving less than average may be correct.
- OJFord 5y ago
  Depends on the average. In your example the median gives $0; the mean gives 'less than half of some'; the mode gives $0.
  - mattkrause 5y ago
    I know people learn this in middle school, but I've never seen an actual scholarly work call the median or mode "the average"--and I think I'd find it slightly misleading if they did. "Typical", "likely", (etc) are all fine, but to me, "average" strongly implies "mean."
    - Laremere 5y ago
      That precision of language is not the way most people would use that word, eg "a single value (such as a mean, mode, or median) that summarizes or represents the general significance of a set of unequal values" - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/average https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/average "be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others" - Robustness principle It's good to be precise when communicating, but in most contexts you shouldn't expect it from others.
      - mattkrause 5y ago
        I understand that some sources say that one can use "average" to mean something other than the mean. My claim, as an actual working[0] scientist who encounters those words a lot, is that nobody really does, outside of "Well, actually the average can be the median or mode too...."-type statements. I'd put describing the mode as "the average" on par with giving someone a tomato and zucchini salad while describing it as "mixed berries." Not technically wrong but.... [0] Well, slacking scientist at the moment, but...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
BenoitEssiambre 5y ago
On subjective qualitative questions, the average should probably be above 50% because everybody has different scales and are probably following their own scale better than average. eg. If you believe good driving means following traffic laws, you probably follow traffic laws better than average. If you believe good driving means low lap time on a race track, you might have a better lap time than average.

by axaxs 5y ago

mathattack 5y ago

Most people think they are better drivers than average.

jedberg 5y ago
Right, but some of us know we are. :)

jedberg 5y ago

77% think they are smarter than average.

mateo411 5y ago
That's part of the Lake Woebegone effect. For me it's different, I think I'm smarter than average 77% of the time.
- Nevermark 5y ago
  I believe in this. Smarts are more like a distribution curve, even in a single individual. There are areas I am in the 1 percentile, I think I can say without exaggeration. Those areas I seem to have insights in without effort, coupled with thousands of hours of focus. But I experience a high cost of many things I do very very badly compared to almost EVERY SINGLE PERSON I know. I am not alone in this assessment of myself. Friends & family all agree. My many areas of remarkable incompetence, besides occasionally causing me great shame, make it very clear to me that everyone I know or meet has something to offer, at least to me!
  - msrenee 5y ago
    There's so many facets to intelligence. There's a lot of areas that I'm more competent than most in and I learn very quickly. Then there's things like math where I have plenty of education, but the simplest real-world applications throw me for a loop. Add in frequent blonde moments and I can go from looking like the smartest person in the room to the stupidest in no time.
- snapcore 5y ago
  My definition of dumb is people who don't agree with me. So it's safe to say I'm basically Einstein ;-)
- imtringued 5y ago
  Smarter at what? Smarter at the things you are good at of course and there are lots of people who are not good at the things you are good at, so you consider yourself smarter than average. If you asked people if they were smarter at everything than average what would they answer?
pgreenwood 5y ago
It could well be true that 77% of people are smarter than average if intelligence is a heavily skewed distribution.

LeoPanthera 5y ago

It says "average" not "median" so it's not necessary for the result to be 50/50 even if everyone was perfectly honest.

axaxs 5y ago
When it comes to personality traits/skills, average has to refer to the median. I can't think of a qualitative way to do it otherwise.

re 5y ago

You can sort the results by agreement percent to see which questions are most and least skewed. Interestingly one of the most precisely balanced is "50% of participants think they are better looking than average."

Nition 5y ago

> Most answers were in the 40 to 60 percent range, which is about where it should be mathematically of course. Not necessarily. For instance there's: > 77% of participants think they give less to homeless people than average. Say most people give $0 to homeless people, but 30% of people give some. In that case 77% giving less than average may be correct.

OJFord 5y ago
Depends on the average. In your example the median gives $0; the mean gives 'less than half of some'; the mode gives $0.
- mattkrause 5y ago
  I know people learn this in middle school, but I've never seen an actual scholarly work call the median or mode "the average"--and I think I'd find it slightly misleading if they did. "Typical", "likely", (etc) are all fine, but to me, "average" strongly implies "mean."
  - Laremere 5y ago
    That precision of language is not the way most people would use that word, eg "a single value (such as a mean, mode, or median) that summarizes or represents the general significance of a set of unequal values" - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/average https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/average "be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others" - Robustness principle It's good to be precise when communicating, but in most contexts you shouldn't expect it from others.
    - mattkrause 5y ago
      I understand that some sources say that one can use "average" to mean something other than the mean. My claim, as an actual working[0] scientist who encounters those words a lot, is that nobody really does, outside of "Well, actually the average can be the median or mode too...."-type statements. I'd put describing the mode as "the average" on par with giving someone a tomato and zucchini salad while describing it as "mixed berries." Not technically wrong but.... [0] Well, slacking scientist at the moment, but...

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

BenoitEssiambre 5y ago

On subjective qualitative questions, the average should probably be above 50% because everybody has different scales and are probably following their own scale better than average. eg. If you believe good driving means following traffic laws, you probably follow traffic laws better than average. If you believe good driving means low lap time on a race track, you might have a better lap time than average.