My dear ego
Will we be happy if we assess ourselves as realistically as possible? Not necessarily! According to researchers, there's a surprising amount to be said for a flattering self-image.
Think of something better? Certainly not! Only pompous snobs and show-offs do that, right? But seriously, I don't mean that negatively at all. You, yes you, probably think you're better than that. Because almost everyone strives for a radiant ego - and beautifies their self-image accordingly. It's just in our nature.
For example, on average we consider ourselves to be more competent, influential and popular than we actually are. Of course, this does not apply in all areas and not all the time. But very often. And especially in those fields that we consider particularly important.
Numerous studies by psychologists have come to this amazing result in recent years. However, even researchers do not know exactly what a person is really like. We are not talking about individual cases here, but about statistical mean values that are determined across many people. These reveal that we regularly rate ourselves better than other people who are closely acquainted with us see us. Or as objective measures of behavior such as the results of IQ tests suggest or as simply plausible.
What does that mean specifically? How do psychologists measure our tendency to overconfidence?…
