Illusory Superiority

Illusory superiority, sometimes called the better-than-average effect or the Lake Wobegon effect, is the tendency for people to overestimate their own positive qualities and abilities relative to other people, so that a clear majority of a group rates itself as above average on some desirable trait, a statistical impossibility if the group as a whole is being judged honestly. The effect has been documented across a wide range of domains, including driving ability, intelligence, job performance and ethical behavior, and it is considered one of the most consistently replicated findings in social psychology. The informal name Lake Wobegon effect references the fictional radio town where, according to the writer Garrison Keillor, all the children are above average.