Research says... we think we're better than we are!

As I was reading the latest Reader's digest, I stumbled on an article titled, Seven Dumb Things We Do. As I read the article I was amazed that the article actually had some validity to it. For instance, the seventh dumb thing that we do is that we think we are better than we are. Sounds like scripture, right?


The article quotes a Princeton University research team and their study. The team asked people "to estimate how susceptible they and the "average person" were to judgemental biases, most people claimed to be less biased than others." Interesting...

The author states that "this should come as no surprise . Most of us hate to think of ourselves as average or, heaven forbid, below average." There are more interesting tidbits from this article.

Stefano Della Vigna, an associate professor of economics at the University of California Berkely states that "overconfidence is, we think, a very general feature of human psychology." He goes on to say that "nearly everyone is overconfident, except people who are depressed. They tend to be realists." Wow!

The article then documents the fact that as tasks get harder, overconfidence goes up and not down. "So strong is our belief in our own abilities that we often believe we can control even chance events, such as flipping a coin or cutting a deck of cards. But it is an illusion of control."

The more we explore our world and who we are in our world the more we discover that the Biblical interpretation is ... most accurate. Without Christ, we are doomed to be addicted to ourselves as scripture clearly teaches. The first shall be last, the meek shall inherit and scripture goes on and on...

I leave you with the following verse. Blessings!


I Peter 5:5
"Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”