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.
I'd have to say that the average guy on the street is smarter than everyone in DC combined.
Agreed. To them, “intelligence” is getting over on someone else, like Uncle Sugar.
LOL!!
They should’ve broken this down by liberals/conservatives.
I’m not your average American amigo ...
No.
I was asking if doctors die in plane crashes at a higher frequency than any other profession, even pilots.
PS - Also, it was intended as a joke...
Wat u say?
If anyone wants to read something amusing on this topic, read:
https://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~suh/metacognition.pdf
Ronald Reagan It isn’t that Liberals are ignorant. It’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”
I think 55% is pretty close. The difference could be due to many factors including 1) what is average, 2) What is intelligence and 3) who is American.
Is average mean, median or mode? Is average within 1 standard deviation?
Is intelligence simply IQ or is it common sense? Is intelligence retention of facts and figures or is the ability to use information?
Who is the average American? My neighbors? Does it include the children or the senile?
All in all, the results at 55% sound reasonable.
So are you for it or again it?
They might be right depending on whether they mean average person or average IQ.
The average IQ does not equate to 50% of people above and 50% of people below.
What amazes me is that 45% of people think they are below average thinkers.
“So are you for it or again it? “
Abortion? I’m against it. We’ve murdered 55 million unborn since Roe v. Wade. That’s the most horrendous crime since Stalin eliminating the Kulaks.
Here’s one way of looking at it. The city does a traffic study at an intersection and determines x% of people run red lights. Therefore an auto-camera ticketing scheme will make y million dollars. They install it and immediately everybody’s behavior changes to take into account the new (we’ll call it “rules.”) Making abortion legal immediately changed everybody’s behavior. Why take precautions in advance when you could take action after becoming pregnant? So instead of x accidental pregnancies (which could be handled by a good adoption system. Not the one have now which costs $30,000 per baby to use) we have instead 100x pregnancies.
Wow. It takes a special kind of stupid to mistreat the guys who maintain the supersonic machine that keeps his butt in the air and out of the ground.
And ALL of those “below average” vote.
And the really SMART ones stay home if the “other” Presidential candidate doesn’t agree with them on ALL TEN items on their checklist.
They might be right depending on whether they mean average person or average IQ.
The average IQ does not equate to 50% of people above and 50% of people below.
What amazes me is that 45% of people think they are below average thinkers.
“So maybe your ideas don’t quite gel here.”
You don’t see the effort in our educational system to sell radical egalitarianism?
“Smarter is another one of those words that has so many definitions that it is practically meaningless.”
That’s true, but in this case it doesn’t matter. Whatever the individual’s definition may be, if he thinks he has more than the next fellow, he probably won’t put much credit in that fellow’s opinion.
IQ Test:
1. Do you regularly read ‘People’ magazine?
2. Are you a registered Democrat?
3. Do you think the people on NPR are smarter than you are?
0 Yes answers = Above average intelligence.
1 Yes answer = Average intelligence.
2 Yes answers = Below average intelligence.
3 Yes answers = Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Stop staring at the sun. Concentrate on breathing all by yourself.
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