When we are asked to rate our own intelligence, most people will say they have an above average IQ. Statisticians are no stranger to this effect, they call it “Illusory superiority” translated into Vietnamese means “illusion of superiority”, “illusion of superiority” or more simply “power illusion”.
In social psychology, Illusory superiority is defined as a cognitive bias in which a person overestimates his or her own qualities and abilities relative to similar qualities and abilities in others.
With a recent study, scientists have shown that men are more susceptible to this effect when self-assessing their intelligence. In contrast, women often lack confidence, leading to underestimation of their own IQ, while they may be much smarter than they think.
In short, many men who previously thought they were chickens turned out to be green beans.
Not only men, manly women too
The study was carried out by scientists from the School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Australia. In it, they recruited a group of male and female volunteers to participate in a test to estimate their own intelligence.
First, scientists will give a brief introduction to IQ, how it represents human intelligence, and how IQ is calculated. Then, they deliberately produced a statistic that showed that two-thirds of the population, or 66%, had an IQ score of 85 to 115, the average score was 100.
Then, both male and female volunteers were asked to rate their own intelligence, and give them the score they thought they would get. “Our group of volunteers reported an average IQ score of 107.55“, said David Reilly, a researcher at Griffith University and a member of the American Psychological Association.
“This is a bit higher than average, just as we expected [từ hiệu ứng ảo tưởng vượt trội]”.
To confirm the actual results, the volunteers were finally given an IQ assessment test called the Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test (CFIT). Their results are shown in the chart below:
As you can see, the vertical axis of the chart represents each person’s estimated IQ score, while the horizontal axis is their actual IQ score. The green dots are the female volunteers’ scores, while the blue dots are the male volunteers’ scores.
The blue moving average results are always significantly higher than the green moving average. It shows that men are more delusional about their intelligence than women. There are men who think they have an IQ score of up to 115, when the reality test is only 80 points.
In contrast, most women underestimate their own intelligence. Many people think they only get 90 IQ points, while checking out the number is up to 130 points.
“In general, when asked to estimate their own IQ, men often thought they were significantly smarter than they really were, while women were much more modest.“, Reilly wrote.
“Our findings are consistent with the results of previous studies. As psychologist Adrian Furnham once called this effect male arrogance, and female modesty. It holds true for people of all cultures.”
Not only that, in their study, Reilly and colleagues also performed a psychological gender test called “Bem Sex-Role Inventory”. This test can estimate each person’s masculinity and femininity regardless of actual gender.
The results also showed that the more masculine men and women, the higher their delusions about their own IQs. But for feminine women and men, no similar association was found.
Why are men arrogant and women humble?
Using thousands of tests and hundreds of studies over decades, scientists have long confirmed one fact: There is no difference in IQ between men and women. That is, there is no one sex that is smarter than the other.
However, that objective reality is not accurately reflected in the subjective view of each of us, it creates a persistent prejudice in every society and every culture.
Throughout history, women have been thought to be less intelligent because they have smaller skulls. But if that logic holds true, we can’t be smarter than elephants. While science has proven intelligence does not depend on brain size or skull size.
It was not until the last 100 years that gender stereotypes began to change. Today, when asked if men or women are smarter, most people would agree that there is no difference between them. Most countries do not support gender stereotypes about intelligence.
But social psychology studies still find a hidden gender stereotype in our heads. And even though people don’t say it, they subconsciously think that men are smarter than women.
For example, a survey of parents who estimate their children’s intelligence shows that: Boys are consistently rated as significantly more intelligent than girls. This finding has been confirmed in many countries and cultures worldwide.
Reilly said: “Parents’ expectations can be extremely influential in their children’s perception of intelligence, and it is also predictive of their children’s later academic achievement.”. When boys are expected to have higher intelligence, they build larger egos.
“People with large egos tend to see every aspect of their life (including their intellect) more positively. Girls and women rated their egos significantly lower than boys and men. This difference emerges early in adolescence“, says Reilly. And that may be why men are more delusional about their IQs than women.
What does this study mean?
It can be seen that the discovery of the superior intellectual delusion effect in men not only wakes men with self-delusion, but it also helps women to better assess their own abilities.
“Educational psychologists have long noticed the self-estimation effect of intelligence, because it is often a self-fulfilling prophecy: If you think you can’t do something there, you won’t really be able to do it“, Reilly said.
When girls underestimate their intelligence in school, they often have low self-esteem and tend not to dare to choose difficult subjects. That’s also why few girls choose to study STEM subjects like science, math, technology and engineering.
These misconceptions will limit women’s educational and career choices later on. After all, it can also affect salary and ability to negotiate with employers.
“We need to uplift the aspirations of girls and women if they are to continue to tackle the complex problems facing our society, while achieving equal wages.“, said Reilly.Everything has to start early from flattening parents’ expectations about intelligence by gender and the difference in ego between boys and girls.”
Only then, will the prejudices about gender intelligence in society, and also the illusion of transcendental wisdom of men disappear.
Refer to Theconversation