Think You're a Pro? You
May Overestimate Ability

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New study findings show that if you think you're a pro at math, chances are you'll guess you aced your math test--even if you bombed it.

Conversely, people who doubt their abilities will often underestimate their performance. These findings may help explain why women tend to avoid careers in science more often than men, even if the two sexes have equal ability, according to study authors Drs. Joyce Ehrlinger and David Dunning at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

"Surprisingly, these views we have about ourselves aren't necessarily tied to our performance," Dunning told Reuters Health.

Carrying false estimates of our abilities can be harmful, Dunning added. Underestimations of performance are the exception, he noted, for most people tend to think of themselves as better at something than they really are.

This thinking can cause people to expect to ace a test, and therefore forgo studying and do poorly, Dunning suggested. Some may believe they are in perfect health, and therefore don't feel the need to visit a doctor until they fall deathly ill. Others may delude themselves into thinking their marriages are in perfect shape, and are blindsided when a spouse hands them divorce papers, he added.

In one experiment, 91 students who said they believed they were good at abstract reasoning took a test that included instructions that said that high scorers are either good at abstract reasoning or good at computer programming. Although the two tests were identical, those who received the test that appeared geared toward programming had lower expectations about their scores than did the other group, although both groups scored equally well.

To test whether these findings could help explain the persistent gender gap in science careers, Ehrlinger and Dunning asked 119 students to complete a scientific reasoning test.

They found that women were more likely than men to say they performed poorly in science in general. The women also predicted they would score lower than men on the scientific reasoning test, both in raw score and relative to other students. However, as the authors report in the January issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, both sexes performed equally well on the test.

In an interview, Dunning explained that people can develop inaccurate self-views when they don't pick up clear cues about how well they are doing. For instance, a person who believes he is a good public speaker is not likely to see an audience walk out during his presentation. Rather, even if audience members are daydreaming or frozen in embarrassment for his sake, in his mind, they may simply appear to be listening.

Even if women ace every test in high school, once they continue studying, feedback becomes less straightforward, Dunning noted. Women who continue to study science may begin to underestimate their scientific abilities if their supervisor takes longer to return their E-mails than male students, or shows less excitement at female workers' ideas, Dunning added.

And when people encounter a scientific concept they don't understand, men may think nothing of it, while women may believe they are living up to the stereotype that women do poorly in science.

"Those stereotypes can have an impact, even if you don't believe them," Dunning said.

Without clear feedback from others, it is often hard to accurately know how well you are doing at any task, Dunning noted. He advised that people who want to be aware of their true abilities ask for feedback from others. "You can't go it alone," he said. "It's important to get outside feedback."

SOURCE: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003;84:5-17.

Reference Source 89

For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".