Posted on 05/14/2014 10:22:17 AM PDT by dsc
Forget being smarter than a fifth-grader. Most Americans think they’re smarter than everyone else in the country.
Fifty-five percent of Americans think that they are smarter than the average American, according to a new survey by YouGov, a research organization that uses online polling. In other words, as YouGov cleverly points out, the average American thinks that he or she is smarter than the average American.
A humble 34 percent of citizens say they are about as smart as everyone else, while a dispirited 4 percent say they are less intelligent than most people.
Men (24 percent) are more likely than women (15 percent) to say they are “much more intelligent” than the average American. White people are more likely to say the same than Hispanic and black people.
So, this many smart people must mean that, on the whole, the United States ranks pretty high in intelligence, right?
Not quite. According to the survey, just 44 percent of Americans say that Americans are “averagely intelligent.” People who make less than $40,000 a year are much more likely to say that their fellow Americans are intelligent, while those who make more than $100,000 are far more likely to say that Americans are unintelligent.
The results are not surprising. Western cultures have a habit of inflating their self-worth, past research has shown. The most competent individuals also tend to underestimate their ability, while incompetent people overestimate it. Not out of arrogance, but of ignorance—the worst performers often don’t get negative feedback. In this survey, 28 percent of high school graduates say they are “slightly more intelligent” than average, while just 1 percent of people with doctoral degrees say they are “much more intelligent.”
Of course, a Ph.D. doesn’t necessarily measure intelligence, nor does how much money you make. Those factors, along with gender and race, may be better indicators of humblebrag ability than brainpower.
Do they offer Doctorates in Womyn’s Studies, White Privilege and such crap yet?
Beats me. But the fact is that our university system still has enough integrity that, in general, if you bump into someone with a doctorate, they’re going to be well smarter than average.
I wonder how long that is going to be true at the rate the country is being dumbed down?
That could be. I just don't know any other way to live. I tried the lying stuff years and years ago and found I always got into trouble, way more than if I'd been truthful.
It's the way I live now and I'm sticking to it.
FMCDH(BITS)
Try campaigning for the true conservative before we get to the point of having poor choices.
You make it sound like you have to sit on your butt until the Gumba’s serve up a candidate.
“You make it sound like you have to sit on your butt until the Gumba’s serve up a candidate.”
I didn’t mean to make it sound like that. That’s not what I think.
I just haven’t seen any effective rebellion against the GOPe since Ronaldus Magnus.
“If 9 people have $100 and a tenth has $10, the average is $91.10, and 90% have of those people have more than the average.”
The mean is $91, but that’s not really what we’re talking about. The point here is people’s *perception*of their own relative intelligence, however sloppy that may be by statistical standards.
Their perceptions are important here, because they influence people’s actions.
Is Newt Gingrich smarter than me? How about Rand Paul? Greentard eco-whackos tend to think they—and Count Taxula’s henchman Algore—are much smarter than people like Thomas Sowell and Ted Cruz.
How different would things be if they were aware how much more intelligent and wise Sowell is than their own sorry, dimbulb selves?
“This strikes me as faux humility.”
Yes, the author mentioned that, and I’m sure that you are right—with exceptions.
I can see someone with a Ph.D. in, say, astrophysics, becoming aware that Slick Willie Clintstone is able to do things that he, the Ph.D., cannot.
Someone who has poor interpersonal skills might tend to regard himself as gifted in one area and dumb as a post in all others. IOW, true humility.
“If you’ve got a doctoral degree, you have good reason to think you’re much more intelligent than average.”
OTOH, I knew a woman who got her Ph.D. in psychology despite being stupid as a sack of dirt.
“Even the dumb can’t be fooled all the time”
Maybe the problem is not so much with them, but with the group that have an IQ of around 120 to 130, and are diseducated products of our public schools and Ivy League commie mills.
They think they are at least as smart as Thomas Sowell, and so the truly intelligent, scholarly, and wise have no impact on them.
I think people perceive that someone around them is less intelligent, far easier than they perceive that someone is more intelligent, but there has to be a significant enough difference to notice.
Also, most people have a social group of similar intelligence, so throw in a bit of natural self-promotion and you get most people thinking they are above average.
That is what surprised me. I would have presumed that ~70% of people would consider themselves above average.
If only. In real life:
4 have $1
2 have $3
1 has $4
1 has $6
1 has $900
The one with $900 pays off the politicians to get those with $3 to pay 10%, the one with $4 to pay 25%, and the one with $6 to pay 40% in taxes.
The politician gets the six making $3 or less to vote for him by using the the one with $900 as an example of a massive wealth gap.
After the vote, the one with $900 gets out of paying any taxes, and the rest taxes are given to those with $1. The final tally is as follows:
4 have $1.9
2 have $2.90
1 has $3
1 has $3.6
1 has $900
Abolish income taxes and replace those with tariffs and a National Retail Sales Ta.
Sorry. You’re entirely correct for a small group, or when speaking of statistics in general. In this particular case, the IQ scale was specifically designed so that 50% of the population was above the mean as well as the median.
Where the mean and median fall within subgroups of the population may of course vary significantly.
BTW, the term “average” may refer to the median, the mode, or most commonly, the mean, which is apparently what you assume is the only meaning of the term.
You are, of course, quite correct that for many data sets these can be very different values. That which use of the term is meant is not commonly stated is one of the most significant failure of popular writing about statistics.
“Yes, I understand the meaning of mean, median, mode, and average. Mean and average are the same thing.”
People frequently refer to the mean as “average,” but the mode and median are also averages.
“I think people perceive that someone around them is less intelligent, far easier than they perceive that someone is more intelligent”
That’s interesting. If true, it would account for some things I have found puzzling. However, it would also be disadvantageous, and so should have been selected against.
“Also, most people have a social group of similar intelligence, so throw in a bit of natural self-promotion and you get most people thinking they are above average.”
Seems to me that the blue-collar people I have known recognize that people like Stephen Hawking and Gary Kasparov are smarter in their fields, but they also think that they themselves have a certain type of intelligence and wisdom, often referred to as “common sense.” And some people with high IQs recognize that they are dumb as a box of hammers in some areas.
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