Average Americans Think They're Smarter Than the Average American

[Felya]

Sure, but some folks can provide evidential support for it when they claim that they're well above average.

Yeah, but I really doubt those are the same people who use their intellect as evidence of them being right.

[Zaqwert]

Dunning Kruger effect in action.

This is also a result of the "everybody gets a trophy" mentality in our society.

Remember when Blizzard removed losses from displaying in SC2?

It's all inter-related.

We're scared to call people out anymore on their failures and shortcoming in fear of hurting their self esteem, so they are in this clueless fog blind to their own shortcomings.

[Post]

Dunning Kruger effect in action.

This is also a result of the "everybody gets a trophy" mentality in our society.

Remember when Blizzard removed losses from displaying in SC2?

It's all inter-related.

We're scared to call people out anymore on their failures and shortcoming in fear of hurting their self esteem, so they are in this clueless fog blind to their own shortcomings.

Do this study in a different country, you'll get the same result.

[Kraenen]

The definition of intelligence is pretty arbitrary. You're better off talking about different types of intelligence like in Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory or Sternberg's Triarchic theory

[Hexian]

I am honestly not going to get dragged into this pathetic discussion.

Buts lets give a big hand to the moderators of this forum who equally distribute punishment on those that violate forum rules...mainly nation bashing.

You could replace American in this thread topic with any other country in the world and this thread would be locked faster than the second page.

Well done, you have proven your bias yet again.

Just linking the forum rules for the moderators to read again: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...dated-14-09-11

[Deleted]

nationbashing
Obvious
Go mods close this.
Let's be consistent in our policy.

[nyc81991]

The definition of intelligence is pretty arbitrary. You're better off talking about different types of intelligence like in Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory or Sternberg's Triarchic theory

Yeah I agree. Intelligence can mean a lot of different things to people. To me, intelligence means that you have a rounded understanding of things, you look to learn more than you do, you can overcome animal instinct with rational thought and you think outside of the box as well as think for yourself.

[Deleted]

Once again, you do not INCREASE intelligence. You increase knowledge. Intelligence is simply how fast you can potentially learn the information to increase your knowledge.

Someone of lesser intelligence can learn more in a faster time with a superior workflow and study ethic. That does not make they more intelligent, it makes they more knowledgeable and allows them to leverage the intelligence you have.

Also, for the sake of saying it, in a thread about intelligence, you might want to give grammar, paragraphs, punctuation, and spelling a shot. It leads me to guess which side of the bell curve you fall on. It would be somewhat ironic to confirm the thread's topic within the thread itself.



Just more evidence towards that western bell.

Of course you can increase intelligence, and IQ, and without much effort.

I'm sorry, but you've just said a bunch of complete nonsense.

You're so wrong it hurts. Want a simple example? Brain training, empirically demonstrates a rise in cognitive functionality, i.e. raises your IQ.

Where the hell did you get your information from? Because either you're a revolutionary theorist, or making it up based on your inherent bias.

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No, but someone more intelligent is going to have a general advantage at getting the job to begin with, or get a better job off the bat.

Not likely, intelligence is a much lesser factor when interviewing for a position.
http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/infographic-how-interviewers-know-when-hire-you-90-seconds/

Also intelligent people are socially conditioned to mask their abilities outside of task orientated situations because it intimidates others and creates a situation where social interactions are difficult.

[Mayhem]

IQ is like DPS.

You're the only one who really cares that you're at the top of the meters.

hmm... not a bad analogy

but think of it this way:

the better you cope with different situations the better your overall dps is

of course this can be attributed to hps and tps as well, no hate please

i love you healbots and scapegoats

[Xires]

And only 4% think they are less intelligent than most people.

I'll just leave this here: http://www.nationaljournal.com/domes...rican-20140512

The most telling thing about this study, besides how intelligent a person feels they are, is how self-deluded most Americans are instead.

Edit:

I feel I should edit for clarity because some people only see the post title and decide to post without reading... I realize that this applies to more than just Americans, that most people in the world are probably like this, but this particular study only looked at Americans in their sample, not a representative sample of the worldwide population. In the context of this post and this article, it was only speaking about the average American.

and since MMO-Champion is typically anti-american you decided to bring it here. Thanks.

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I am honestly not going to get dragged into this pathetic discussion.

Buts lets give a big hand to the moderators of this forum who equally distribute punishment on those that violate forum rules...mainly nation bashing.

You could replace American in this thread topic with any other country in the world and this thread would be locked faster than the second page.

Well done, you have proven your bias yet again.

Just linking the forum rules for the moderators to read again: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...dated-14-09-11

The forum mods are also anti-american which is why anti-american threads are always allowed to continue. Why? I bet most of them are French. <---there....bet I get infracted/banned because I mentioned the French....but I could say "death to america" and the thread would never be locked and nothing would be said. Just be honest mods...no nation bashing UNLESS you are bashing the Americans.

[Stir]

Not an american thing. A human thing.
Dunning-Kruger has been linked a few times. It's pretty much what's going on. That, and no trait in (any of) our societies is valued as much as 'intelligence.' Coupled with the fact that you cannot directly discern other people's thought patterns and reasoning processes, this means nearly everyone estimates themselves higher than average.

The only reason I do not do so is because I am aware of the above.

The forum mods are also anti-american which is why anti-american threads are always allowed to continue. Why? I bet most of them are French. <---there....bet I get infracted/banned because I mentioned the French....but I could say "death to america" and the thread would never be locked and nothing would be said. Just be honest mods...no nation bashing UNLESS you are bashing the Americans.

Or maybe the mods allow such threads as these because it's NOT nation-bashing.
The study was done in the USA. Therefore, the people doing the study cannot reasonably claim 'all humans.' We, as non-professionals, CAN make such sweeping generalizations, but the researchers need to only describe THEIR sample size. Which was 'American.'

Please don't be a silly billy.

[Kurioxan]

People who are average or less tend to over estimate their own intelligence as the don't realise the depth of their ignorance.

people who are above average tend to underestimate it, as they recognize the areas they lack knowledge in.

So if you think you are smart chances are....

Except intelligence and knowledge or the recognition of its lacking arent the same thing
But yes, its the same basis, lack of exposure, I would say it has more to do with the human aspect that every person thinks they know best, know whats right, what would work better, how things should be done and how to handle everything, thing is in most cases they do... in their own particular life, not in the broader realm.
And its easier to assume those who disagree with you are stupid because they cant see/understand what you can, just good ol' ego defence mechanisms.

Ego and exposure, not lack of knowledge.

[TrumpIsPresident]

The forum mods are also anti-american which is why anti-american threads are always allowed to continue. Why? I bet most of them are French. <---there....bet I get infracted/banned because I mentioned the French....but I could say "death to america" and the thread would never be locked and nothing would be said. Just be honest mods...no nation bashing UNLESS you are bashing the Americans.

I'm pretty sure you will get infracted but don't worry I'll be joining you because yes, a lot of mods here are anti-American as well as anti-Right Wing American.

And yes this thread is nation bashing.

[Primernova]

I'm pretty sure you will get infracted but don't worry I'll be joining you because yes, a lot of mods here are anti-American as well as anti-Right Wing American.

And yes this thread is nation bashing.

What is 'Right Wing' anyway?

I don't understand conservatives anymore.

[Spectral]

IQ tests are intrinsically biased towards high education and therefore social class and therefore the correlation with income is something of a tautology.

That's one explanation, I guess. I think you've got the causality in the wrong direction though. I'd be more inclined to think that IQ tests aren't "biased" towards high education so much as that intelligent people are more likely to be highly education.

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Also intelligent people are socially conditioned to mask their abilities outside of task orientated situations because it intimidates others and creates a situation where social interactions are difficult.

My goodness, yes. I deliberately avoid using "big words" around people that I perceive as stupid, because I've been told that it makes people think I'm a dick when I use vocabulary that's my norm.

[Yvaelle]

I wouldn't say it works that way precisely either Spectral - though it's a very important component.

IQ is slightly biased toward education - but general knowledge questions are not part of proper IQ tests, so this argument isn't as true as people often think - ie. Jeopardy is not an IQ test, nor is a lot of the "IQ tests" on survey monkey or whatever online that ask you who the current president is and such.

Education is strongly correlated to income, for obvious reasons.

However, as Spectral points out - high intelligence is also likely correlated to education level: intelligent people get scholarships - making getting higher education easier, and intelligent people also value intelligence and learning more than less intelligent people - meaning they are more motivated to learn and become educated: so the correlation goes in this direction as well.

So it's not so simple as one independent variable impacting one dependent variable - but instead both variables are dependent upon one another, both correlate with one another, and therefore a positive feedback loop exists between education and intelligence. Income level correlates to Quality of Life (particularly in America), while Quality of Life is an externality on the partial causality of education benefiting IQ scoring (which is, again, not a very strong effect).

The quality of life versus income level is an important distinction, some examples:
- in a communist country, income doesn't exist, but education can still be very high
- in a socialist country, income level has a much smaller impact because pressures to meet rents and pay bills is lower
- in a country with a strong public education system (Canada, South Korea), the best education in the country is available to even the poorest students, meaning only after-class tutoring may cost money
- in a country like Norway where post-secondary education is free, willpower and long-term-orientation (LTO) are going to probably correlate much better than income level
- in the US, where everything costs money and nothing is socialized, income will correlate directly with the quality of life and quality and quantity of education
- the cost of living in the US might be very high, while the cost of living in Zimbabwe is very low - a poor person in the US likely has no time to get educated and has no money to pay for it - while a rich person in Zimbabwe probably has much more time on their hands, and can learn from the smartest and best teachers in their country (despite being poorer, absolutely, than the poor American)

So Income is at best a second-order variable on Education, but is strongest within the US (where Income correlates strongest with quality of life). Where income correlates to access to education, income impacts level of education.

[Symphonic]

This just in, BREAKING NEWS, some people are smarter than others, while others are not as smart as some. Full story tonight.

[Deleted]

and since MMO-Champion is typically anti-american you decided to bring it here. Thanks.

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The forum mods are also anti-american which is why anti-american threads are always allowed to continue. Why? I bet most of them are French. <---there....bet I get infracted/banned because I mentioned the French....but I could say "death to america" and the thread would never be locked and nothing would be said. Just be honest mods...no nation bashing UNLESS you are bashing the Americans.

I got banned last week because I asked why French people don't speak English. A week ban for nationbashing asking why a country doesn't learn English? 3 days later at Euro vision 36 out of 37 countries spoke English, guess what country 37 was. Mods are biased as fuck and are even allowed to post troll comments after banning someone (looking at u babouille) its a fucking shame these powerhungry chauvinistic fanatics get a power position within an international forum

[PACOX]

The difference is that in America we think the average American is smarter than the average non American. Duh

[Senathor]

What a surprise.