Me: This is a continuation of the mind hack series, and I wanted to stress that for one to function as optimally and effectively as possible in the modern world today, it is critical that the person must learn about three extremely problematic subjective cognitive biases that can most often lead to ruin and spectacular failure. 

1. The Dunning- Kruger Effect – unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly rating their ability much higher than average. This bias is attributed to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their mistakes (from Wikipedia)

2. The Downing Effect – the tendency of people with a below average IQ to overestimate their IQ, and of people with an above average IQ to underestimate their IQ (from wikipedia) This problem effects males at a far higher degree than females. 

3.  Illusory Superiority – people overestimate their positive qualities and abilities and to underestimate their negative qualities, relative to others. (Wiki) Again, men are far more likely to be affected by this issue than women.

These subjective biases can cause the most painful eventual problems if they are not corrected or at least made self aware in time. This type of problem is most prevalently seen in countries in the west, specifically the USA where individualism is stressed.

There is no doubt that in a culture that stresses the importance of the individual, each individual starts to think that they are special, great, and better than average. No one want sot feel depressed or bad about themselves in believing that they are not as good as others. Most psychologists have said that for the “average healthy” mind of a regular person, they tend to be more optimistic and positive about themselves and their fate than of other people. This means that most people are designed to make inaccurate judgements of their skills and ability.

I personally have met some very , very, VERY smart people in my life, people who I would guess are either have insane raw intelligence, or insanely great work ethic. I have a cousin who has a Ph.D in engineering, has a MD from Stanford Medical school, and is about to be a neurosurgeon making more than 7 figures each year. Another counsin has a MS in Electrical engineering. Another cousin has a Ph. D in Computer science. I have 3 friends who all got full scholarships to study engineering in school and graduated with perfect GPAs and made the top students in the entire university.  I know people who have beaten out over a million other hard working high schools students to become #1 in an entire county (within China no less). One of my college friends has a uncle who is a Nobel Prize winner in Physics currently teaching at Stanford. I know people who got accepted into MIT at the age of 16 and was working for IMB when they were 15. I know people my age who went into investment banking making almost 7 figures each year in bonuses alone. I know people who got a near complete 2400 SAT score without studying at all. Nearly everyone I know has some form of graduate degree.

If you can just go to almost any of the asian countries today, like South Korea, China, Singapore, India, Japan, Russia, Malaysia, etc. you would see that the entire rest of the world is coming after the jobs of the average american worker. Every year millions and million of college graduates come out of university of these asian nations, most of them having degrees in the sciences or engineering. They are hungry , they want to achieve, and they are harder working people than probably 99% of the people you will meet in your lifetime. If you want to compete and have some form of wealth in the coming years ahead, I strongly suggest that you take a trip for half a year in any of these asian countries, go see how the students behave and study, and hopefully find the drive and will inside of yourself to be better and be smarter than the competition.

I have been humbled again and again in life and have come to realize my own ignorance, stupidity, and lack of intelligence when compared to my contemporaries

Here is a 5 basic axiom I have gone on since I was 22:

1. Most people are a lot smarter than you think. No one is stupid. Everyone knows what is going on.

2. Every time you meet someone, assume they are smarter than you so shut up, listen, and try to learn as much as possible from them. At least get 1 take away from the conversation or interaction.

3. If you think you are better than someone else, think again. They are more likely to be better than you in the areas that you think you are good in.

4. Hard work, strong integrity, discipline, and persistence will always result in at least some substantial form of success in the long term.

5. Being physically lazy is dangerous to your health. Being mentality lazy is deadly to your life. 

Me: This next section is basically just me copy and pasting the Wikipedia article/ section on the topic of the Illusory superiority, Downing Effect, and the Dunning- Kruger Effect. READ IT.

Illusory superiority is a cognitive bias that causes people to overestimate their positive qualities and abilities and to underestimate their negative qualities, relative to others. This is evident in a variety of areas including intelligence, performance on tasks or tests, and the possession of desirable characteristics or personality traits. It is one of many positive illusions relating to the self, and is a phenomenon studied insocial psychology.

Illusory superiority is often referred to as the above average effect. Other terms include superiority bias, leniency error, sense of relative superiority, the primus inter pares effect,^[1] and the Lake Wobegon effect (named after Garrison Keillor’s fictional town where “all the children are above average”). The phrase “illusory superiority” was first used by Van Yperen and Buunk in 1991.^[1]

Illusory superiority has been found in individuals’ comparisons of themselves with others in a wide variety of different aspects of life, including performance in academic circumstances (such as class performance, exams and overall intelligence), in working environments (for example in job performance), and in social settings (for example in estimating one’s popularity, or the extent to which one possesses desirable personality traits, such as honesty or confidence), as well as everyday abilities requiring particular skill.^[1]

Effects in different situations

For illusory superiority to be demonstrated by social comparison, two logical hurdles have to be overcome. One is the ambiguity of the word “average”. It is logically possible for nearly all of the set to be above the mean if the distribution of abilities is highly skewed. For example, the mean number of human legs is slightly lower than two, because of a small number of people have only one or no legs. Hence experiments usually compare subjects to the median of the peer group, since by definition it is impossible for a majority to exceed the median.

A further problem in inferring inconsistency is that subjects might interpret the question in different ways, so it is logically possible that a majority of them are, for example, more generous than the rest of the group each on their own understanding of generosity.^[2] This interpretation is confirmed by experiments which varied the amount of interpretive freedom subjects were given. As subjects evaluate themselves on a specific, well-defined attribute, illusory superiority remains.^[3]

Cognitive ability

IQ

One of the main effects of illusory superiority in IQ is the Downing effect. This describes the tendency of people with a below average IQ to overestimate their IQ, and of people with an above average IQ to underestimate their IQ.^{[citation needed]} The propensity to predictably misjudge one’s own IQ was first noted by C. L. Downing who conducted the first cross-cultural studies on perceived ‘intelligence’. His studies also evidenced that the ability to accurately estimate others’ IQ was proportional to one’s own IQ.^{[citation needed]} This means that the lower the IQ of an individual, the less capable they are of appreciating and accurately appraising others’ IQ. Therefore individuals with a lower IQ are more likely to rate themselves as having a higher IQ than those around them.^{[citation needed]} Conversely, people with a higher IQ, while better at appraising others’ IQ overall, are still likely to rate people of similar IQ as themselves as having higher IQs.^{[citation needed]}

The disparity between actual IQ and perceived IQ has also been noted between genders by British psychologist Adrian Furnham, in whose work there was a suggestion that, on average, men are more likely to overestimate their intelligence by 5 points, while women are more likely to underestimate their IQ by a similar margin.^[4][5]

Memory

Illusory superiority has been found in studies comparing memory self-report, such as Schmidt, Berg & Deelman’s research in older adults. This study involved participants aged between 46 and 89 years of age comparing their own memory to that of peers of the same age group, 25-year-olds and their own memory at age 25. This research showed that participants exhibited illusory superiority when comparing themselves to both peers and younger adults, however the researchers asserted that these judgements were only slightly related to age.^[6]

Cognitive tasks

In Kruger and Dunning’s experiments participants were given specific tasks (such as solving logic problems, analyzing grammar questions, and determining whether or not jokes were funny), and were asked to evaluate their performance on these tasks relative to the rest of the group, enabling a direct comparison of their actual and perceived performance.^[7]

Results were divided into four groups depending on actual performance and it was found that all four groups evaluated their performance as above average, meaning that the lowest-scoring group (the bottom 25%) showed a very large illusory superiority bias. The researchers attributed this to the fact that the individuals who were worst at performing the tasks were also worst at recognizing skill in those tasks. This was supported by the fact that, given training, the worst subjects improved their estimate of their rank as well as getting better at the tasks.^[7]

The paper, titled “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments,” won a 2000 Ig Nobel Prize.^[8]

In 2003 Dunning and Joyce Ehrlinger, also of Cornell University, published a study that detailed a shift in people’s views of themselves influenced by external cues. Participants in the study (Cornell Universityundergraduates) were given tests of their knowledge of geography, some intended to positively affect their self-views, some intended to affect them negatively. They were then asked to rate their performance, and those given the positive tests reported significantly better performance than those given the negative.^[9]

Daniel Ames and Lara Kammrath extended this work to sensitivity to others, and the subjects’ perception of how sensitive they were.^[10] Work by Burson Larrick and Joshua Klayman has suggested that the effect is not so obvious and may be due to noise and bias levels.^[11]

Dunning, Kruger, and coauthors’ latest paper on this subject comes to qualitatively similar conclusions after making some attempt to test alternative explanations.^[12]

Academic ability and job performance

In a survey of faculty at the University of Nebraska, 68% rated themselves in the top 25% for teaching ability.^[13]

In a similar survey, 87% of MBA students at Stanford University rated their academic performance as above the median.^[14]

Findings of illusory superiority in research have also explained phenomena such as the large amount of stock market trading (as each trader thinks they are the best, and most likely to succeed),^[15] and the number of lawsuits that go to trial (because, due to illusory superiority, many lawyers have an inflated belief that they will win a case).^[16]

Self, friends and peers

One of the first studies that found the effect of illusory superiority was carried out in 1976 by the College Board in the USA.^[17] A survey was attached to the SAT exams (taken by approximately one million students per year), asking the students to rate themselves relative to the median of the sample (rather than the average peer) on a number of vague positive characteristics. In ratings of leadership ability, 70% of the students put themselves above the median. In ability to get on well with others, 85% put themselves above the median, and 25% rated themselves in the top 1%.

More recent research ^[18] has found illusory superiority in a social context, with participants comparing themselves to friends and other peers on positive characteristics (such as punctuality and sensitivity) and negative characteristics (such as naivety or inconsistency). This study found that participants rated themselves more favorably than their friends, but rated their friends more favorably than other peers. These findings were, however, affected by several moderating factors.

Research by Perloff and Fetzer,^[19] Brown,^[20] and Tajfel and Turner^[21] also found similar effects of participants rating friends higher than other peers. Tajfel and Turner attributed this to an “ingroup bias” and suggested that this was motivated by the individual’s desire for a “positive social identity”.

Popularity

In Zuckerman and Jost’s study, participants were given detailed questionnaires about their friendships and asked to assess their own popularity. By using social network analysis, they were able to show that the participants generally had exaggerated perceptions of their own popularity, particularly in comparison to their own friends.^[22]

Relationship happiness

Researchers have also found the effects of illusory superiority in studies into relationship satisfaction. For example, one study found that participants perceived their own relationships as better than others’ relationships on average, but thought that the majority of people were happy with their relationships. Also, this study found evidence that the higher the participants rated their own relationship happiness, the more superior they believed their relationship was. The illusory superiority exhibited by the participants in this study also served to increase their own relationship satisfaction, as it was found that – in men especially – satisfaction was particularly related to the perception that one’s own relationship was superior as well as to the assumption that few others were unhappy with their relationship, whereas women’s satisfaction was particularly related to the assumption that most others were happy with their relationship.^[23]

Health

Illusory superiority effects have been found in a self-report study of health behaviors (Hoorens & Harris, 1998). The study involved asking participants to estimate how often they, and their peers, carried out healthy and unhealthy behaviors. Participants reported that they carried out healthy behaviors more often than the average peer, and unhealthy behaviors less often, as would be expected given the effect of illusory superiority. These findings were for both past self-report of behaviors and expected future behaviors.^[24]

Driving ability

Svenson (1981) surveyed 161 students in Sweden and the United States, asking them to compare their driving safety and skill to the other people in the experiment. For driving skill, 93% of the US sample and 69% of the Swedish sample put themselves in the top 50% (above the median). For safety, 88% of the US group and 77% of the Swedish sample put themselves in the top 50%.^[25]

McCormick, Walkey and Green (1986) found similar results in their study, asking 178 participants to evaluate their position on eight different dimensions relating to driving skill (examples include the “dangerous-safe” dimension and the “considerate-inconsiderate” dimension). Only a small minority rated themselves as below average (the midpoint of the dimension scale) at any point, and when all eight dimensions were considered together it was found that almost 80% of participants had evaluated themselves as being above the average driver.^[26]

Immunity to bias

Subjects describe themselves in positive terms compared to other people, and this includes describing themselves as less susceptible to bias than other people. This effect is called the bias blind spot and has been demonstrated independently.

Cultural differences

Self-esteem

A vast majority of the literature on self-esteem originates from studies on participants in the United States. However, research that only investigates the effects in one specific population is severely limited as this may not be a true representation of human psychology as a whole. As a result, more recent research has focused on investigating quantities and qualities of self-esteem around the globe. The findings of such studies suggest that illusory superiority varies between cultures.

While a great deal of evidence suggests that we compare ourselves favorably to others on a wide variety of traits, the links to self-esteem are uncertain. The theory that those with high self-esteem maintain this high level by rating themselves over and above others does carry some evidence behind it; it has been reported that non-depressed subjects rate their control over positive outcomes higher than that of a peer; despite an identical level in performance between the two individuals.^[27]

Furthermore, it has been found that non-depressed students will also actively rate peers below themselves, as opposed to rating themselves higher; students were able to recall a great deal more negative personality traits about others than about themselves.^[28]

The data suggests those with a positive self view are more likely to display the above-average effect, as opposed to those with a negative self appraisal. Similarly, those with low self-esteem appear to engage in far less illusory superiority, showing more realism in their self-rating.

These results go against a basic humanistic principle within psychology. In particular, Carl Rogers, a pioneer of humanistic psychology, claims that those with low self-esteem will be far more likely to attempt to belittle others, with the aim of strengthening their fragile self view. On the other hand, Rogers hypothesizes that those with high self-esteem will have no need to put others down or below themselves; and therefore, would be unlikely to exhibit illusory superiority.

It should be noted though, that in these studies there was no distinction made between people with legitimate and illegitimate high self-esteem, as other studies have found that absence of positive illusions may coexist with high self-esteem^[29] and that self-determined individuals with personality oriented towards growth and learning are less prone to these illusions.^[30] Thus it may be likely that while illusory superiority is associated with illegitimate high self-esteem, people with legitimate high self-esteem don’t exhibit it.

Relation to mental health

Psychology has traditionally assumed that generally accurate self-perceptions are essential to good mental health.^[2] This was challenged by a 1988 paper by Taylor and Brown, who argued that mentally healthy individuals typically manifest three cognitive illusions, namely illusory superiority, illusion of control and optimism bias.^[2] This idea rapidly became very influential, with some authorities concluding that it would be therapeutic to deliberately induce these biases.^[31] Since then, further research has both undermined that conclusion and offered new evidence associating illusory superiority with negative effects on the individual.^[2]

One line of argument was that in the Taylor and Brown paper, the classification of people as mentally healthy or unhealthy was based on self-reports rather than objective criteria.^[31] Hence it was not surprising that people prone to self-enhancement would exaggerate how well-adjusted they are. One study claimed that “mentally normal” groups were contaminated by defensive deniers who are the most subject to positive illusions.^[31] A longitudinal study found that self-enhancement biases were associated with poor social skills and psychological maladjustment.^[2] In a separate experiment where videotaped conversations between men and women were rated by independent observers, self-enhancing individuals were more likely to show socially problematic behaviors such as hostility or irritability.^[2] A 2007 study found that self-enhancement biases were associated with psychological benefits (such as subjective well-being) but also inter- and intra-personal costs (such as anti-social behavior).^[32]

Neuroimaging

The degree to which people view themselves as more desirable than the average person links to reduced activation in their orbitofrontal cortex and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. This is suggested to link to the role of these areas in processing “cognitive control”.^[33]

Explanations

Noisy mental information processing

A recent Psychological Bulletin suggests that illusory superiority (as well as other biases) can be explained by a simple information-theoretic generative mechanism that assumes a noisy conversion of objective evidence (observation) into subjective estimates (judgment).^[34] The study suggests that the underlying cognitive mechanism is essentially similar to the noisy mixing of memories that can cause theconservatism bias or overconfidence: after our own performance, we readjust our estimates of our own performance more than we readjust our estimates of others’ performances. This implies that our estimates of the scores of others are even more conservative (more influenced by the previous expectation) than our estimates of our own performance (more influenced by the new evidence received after giving the test). The difference in the conservative bias of both estimates (conservative estimate of our own performance, and even more conservative estimate of the performance of others) is enough to create illusory superiority. Since mental noise is a sufficient explanation that is much simpler and straightforward than any other explanation involving heuristics, behavior, or social interaction,^[17] Occam’s razor would argue in its favor as the underlying generative mechanism (it is the hypotheses which makes the fewest assumptions).

Selective recruitment

This is the idea that when making a comparison with a peer an individual will select their own strengths and the other’s weaknesses in order that they appear better on the whole. This theory was first tested by Weinstein (1980); however, this was in an experiment relating to optimistic bias, rather than the better-than-average effect. The study involved participants rating certain behaviors as likely to increase or decrease the chance of a series of life events happening to them. It was found that individuals showed less optimistic bias when they were allowed to see others’ answers.^[35]

Perloff and Fetzer (1986) suggested that when comparing themselves to an average peer on a particular ability or characteristic an individual would choose a comparison target (the peer being compared) that scored less well on that ability or characteristic, in order that the individual would appear to be better than average. To test this theory Perloff and Fetzer asked participants to compare themselves to specific comparison targets (a close friend), and found that illusory superiority decreased when specific targets were given, rather than vague constructs such as the “average peer”. However these results are not completely reliable and could be affected by the fact that individuals like their close friends more than an “average peer” and may as a result rate their friend as being higher than average, therefore the friend would not be an objective comparison target.^[19]

Egocentrism

The second explanation for how the better-than-average effect works is egocentrism. This is the idea that an individual places greater importance and significance on their own abilities, characteristics and behaviors than those of others. Egocentrism is therefore a less overtly self-serving bias. According to egocentrism, individuals will overestimate themselves in relation to others because they believe that they have an advantage that others do not have, as an individual considering their own performance and another’s performance will consider their performance to be better, even when they are in fact equal. Kruger (1999) found support for the egocentrism explanation in his research involving participant ratings of their ability on easy and difficult tasks. It was found that individuals were consistent in their ratings of themselves as above the median in the tasks classified as “easy” and below the median in the tasks classified as “difficult”, regardless of their actual ability. In this experiment the better-than-average effect was observed when it was suggested to participants that they would be successful, but also a worse-than-average effect was found when it was suggested that participants would be unsuccessful.^[36]

Focalism

The third explanation for the better-than-average effect is focalism, the idea that greater significance is placed on the object that is the focus of attention. Most studies of the better-than-average effect place greater focus on the self when asking participants to make comparisons (the question will often be phrased with the self being presented before the comparison target – e.g. “compare yourself to the average person…”). According to focalism this means that the individual will place greater significance on their own ability or characteristic than that of the comparison target. This also means that in theory if, in an experiment on the better-than-average effect, the questions were phrased so that the self and other were switched (e.g. “compare the average peer to yourself”) the better-than-average effect should be lessened.^[37]

Research into focalism has focused primarily on optimistic bias rather than the better-than-average effect. However, two studies found a decreased effect of optimistic bias when participants were asked to compare an average peer to themselves, rather than themselves to an average peer.^[38][39]

Windschitl, Kruger & Simms (2003) have conducted research into focalism, focusing specifically on the better-than-average effect, and found that asking participants to estimate their ability and likelihood of success in a task produced results of decreased estimations when they were asked about others’ chances of success rather than their own.^[40]

“Self versus aggregate” comparisons

This idea, put forward by Giladi and Klar, suggests that when making comparisons any single member of a group will be evaluated^{[by whom?]} to rank above that group’s statistical mean performance level or the median performance level of its members. Research has found this effect in many different areas of human performance and has even generalized it beyond individuals’ attempts to draw comparisons involving themselves. Findings of this research therefore suggest that rather than individuals evaluating themselves as above average in a self-serving manner, the better-than-average effect is actually due to a general tendency to evaluate any single person or object as better than average.

Better-than-average heuristic

Alicke and Govorun proposed the idea that, rather than individuals consciously reviewing and thinking about their own abilities, behaviors and characteristics and comparing them to those of others, it is likely that people instead have what they describe as an “automatic tendency to assimilate positively-evaluated social objects toward ideal trait conceptions”. For example, if an individual evaluated themselves as honest, they would be likely to then exaggerate their characteristic towards their perceived ideal position on a scale of honesty. Importantly, Alicke has noted that this ideal position is not always the top of the scale, for example, in the case of honesty, someone who is always brutally honest may be regarded as rude. Instead, the ideal is a balance perceived differently by different individuals.

Non-social explanations

The better-than-average effect may not have wholly social origins: judgements about inanimate objects suffer similar distortions.^[41]

Moderating factors

While illusory superiority has been found to be somewhat self-serving, this does not mean that it will predictably occur: it is not constant. Instead the strength of the effect is moderated by many factors, the main examples of which have been summarized by Alicke and Govorun (2005).^[17]

Interpretability/ambiguity of trait

This is a phenomenon that Alicke and Govorun have described as “the nature of the judgement dimension” and refers to how subjective (abstract) or objective (concrete) the ability or characteristic being evaluated is.^[17] Research by Sedikides & Strube (1997) has found that people are more self-serving (the effect of illusory superiority is stronger) when the event in question is more open to interpretation,^[42] for example social constructs such as popularity and attractiveness are more interpretable than characteristics such as intelligence and physical ability.^[43] This has been partly attributed also to the need for a believable self-view.^[44]

The idea that ambiguity moderates illusory superiority has empirical research support from a study involving two conditions: in one, participants were given criteria for assessing a trait as ambiguous or unambiguous, and in the other participants were free to assess the traits according to their own criteria. It was found that the effect of illusory superiority was greater in the condition where participants were free to assess the traits.^[45]

The effects of illusory superiority have also been found to be strongest when people rate themselves on abilities at which they are totally incompetent. These subjects have the greatest disparity between their actual performance (at the low end of the distribution) and their self-rating (placing themselves above average). This Dunning–Kruger effect is interpreted as a lack of metacognitive ability to recognize their own incompetence.^[7]

Method of comparison

The method used in research into illusory superiority has been found to have an implication on the strength of the effect found. Most studies into illusory superiority involve a comparison between an individual and an average peer, of which there are two methods: direct comparison and indirect comparison. A direct comparison – which is more commonly used – involves the participant rating themselves and the average peer on the same scale, from “below average” to “above average”^[46] and results in participants being far more self-serving.^[47] Researchers have suggested that this occurs due to the closer comparison between the individual and the average peer, however use of this method means that it is impossible to know whether a participant has overestimated themselves, underestimated the average peer, or both.

The indirect method of comparison involves participants rating themselves and the average peer on separate scales and the illusory superiority effect is found by taking the average peer score away from the individual’s score (with a higher score indicating a greater effect). While the indirect comparison method is used less often it is more informative in terms of whether participants have overestimated themselves or underestimated the average peer, and can therefore provide more information about the nature of illusory superiority.^[46]

Comparison target

The nature of the comparison target is one of the most fundamental moderating factors of the effect of illusory superiority, and there are two main issues relating to the comparison target that need to be considered.

First, research into illusory superiority is distinct in terms of the comparison target because an individual compares themselves with a hypothetical average peer rather than a tangible person. Alicke et al. (1995) found that the effect of illusory superiority was still present but was significantly reduced when participants compared themselves with real people (also participants in the experiment, who were seated in the same room), as opposed to when participants compared themselves with an average peer. This suggests that research into illusory superiority may itself be biasing results and finding a greater effect than would actually occur in real life.^[46]

Further research into the differences between comparison targets involved four conditions where participants were at varying proximity to an interview with the comparison target: watching live in the same room; watching on tape; reading a written transcript; or making self-other comparisons with an average peer. It was found that when the participant was further removed from the interview situation (in the tape observation and transcript conditions) the effect of illusory superiority was found to be greater. Researchers asserted that these findings suggest that the effect of illusory superiority is reduced by two main factors, individuation of the target and live contact with the target.

Second, Alicke et al.’s (1995) studies investigated whether the negative connotations to the word “average” may have an effect on the extent to which individuals exhibit illusory superiority, namely whether the use of the word “average” increases illusory superiority. Participants were asked to evaluate themselves, the average peer and a person whom they had sat next to in the previous experiment, on various dimensions. It was found that they placed themselves highest, followed by the real person, followed by the average peer, however the average peer was consistently placed above the mean point on the scale, suggesting that the word “average” did not have a negative effect on the participant’s view of the average peer.^[46]

Controllability

An important moderating factor of the effect of illusory superiority is the extent to which an individual believes they are able to control and change their position on the dimension concerned. According to Alicke & Govorun positive characteristics that an individual believes are within their control are more self-serving, and negative characteristics that are seen as uncontrollable are less detrimental to self-enhancement.^[17] This theory was supported by Alicke’s (1985) research, which found that individuals rated themselves as higher than an average peer on positive controllable traits and lower than an average peer on negative uncontrollable traits. The idea, suggested by these findings, that individuals believe that they are responsible for their success and some other factor is responsible for their failure is known as the self-serving bias.

Individual differences of judge

Personality characteristics vary widely between people and have been found to moderate the effects of illusory superiority, one of the main examples of this is self-esteem. Brown (1986) found that in self-evaluations of positive characteristics participants with higher self-esteem showed greater illusory superiority bias than participants with lower self-esteem. Similar findings come from a study by Suls, Lemos & Stewart (2002), but in addition they found that participants pre-classified as having high self-esteem interpreted ambiguous traits in a self-serving way, whereas participants who were pre-classified as having low self-esteem did not do this.

Worse-than-average effect

In contrast to what is commonly believed, research has found that better-than-average effects are not universal. In fact, much recent research has found the opposite effect in many, especially more difficult, tasks.

IQ

One of the main effects of illusory superiority in IQ is the Downing effect. This describes the tendency of people with a below average IQ to overestimate their IQ, and of people with an above average IQ to underestimate their IQ. The propensity to predictably misjudge one’s own IQ was first noted by C. L. Downing who conducted the first cross-cultural studies on perceived ‘intelligence’. His studies also evidenced that the ability to accurately estimate others’ IQ was proportional to one’s own IQ. This means that the lower the IQ of an individual, the less capable they are of appreciating and accurately appraising others’ IQ. Therefore individuals with a lower IQ are more likely to rate themselves as having a higher IQ than those around them. Conversely, people with a higher IQ, while better at appraising others’ IQ overall, are still likely to rate people of similar IQ as themselves as having higher IQs.

The disparity between actual IQ and perceived IQ has also been noted between genders by British psychologist Adrian Furnham, in whose work there was a suggestion that, on average, men are more likely to overestimate their intelligence by 5 points, while women are more likely to underestimate their IQ by a similar margin.

Dunning–Kruger effect

Me: This is a height increase supplement stack method a nearly complete physically mature person created to try to increase in height. In his method, the main components are colostrum, niacin, and amino acids, all which I have covered at some point in the website stating that there is clinical studies showing that each of the compounds has some correlation to greater height. 

The method was found from an old post on Giant Scientific. Source Link HERE

Read more: Nutrition Forum – Colostrum? http://ehealthforum.com/health/topic15988.html#b#ixzz28zNoVccf

Me: This is a complete repost I did on the type of advice an endocrinologist gave online about what you can realistically do to possibly increase your height.

Source Link HERE

It Is Possible To GROW TALL If Your Bones Arent Fused!{no Scams}

For the short guys out there I know how it feels being short but if your still a teenager there is hope to grow pass your genetic height if you are 17 – 21 there is still hope if your growth plates arent fused by then.But if your plates are already fused there is nothing you can do about your height.The reason i am doing this is because Im short myself and think there is hope for us.Heres the information an endicronologist gave on a sight concerning short people.

Endicronologist said:
This is a quite in-depth report which I am making in view of the few months of research I have done into growing taller. This report is not bias and does not in any way contain any brand names. Please note that companies claiming growth and all are likely to be scam sites. Please do not trust them, especially those who claim an increase of height for those who are over 21, or those that come in Lotion form, or give high amounts of HGH ( these will result in facial and physical deformation ).

First of all I would like to clarify some things. It is not possible at all to grow taller ( besides using Limb Extension Surgery ) once the growth plates are fused. Total epiphyseal ( growth plate ) fusion occurs at 20 or, in some individuals up to 25. Any site which claims to open the closed growth plates or promote growth after the age of 21 are likely to be scams.

Second, I would like to say that for those who are below 15 ( and probably, those who are 16 ), there is very much hope for you. Those who are 16-21, there is hope, but the only thing that might help you, from an endocrinologist viewpoint, is estrogen blockers, or aromatase inhibitors. Estrogen blockers, or aromatase inhibitors, will slow down epiphyseal fusion so that you can grow more for longer. Estrogen actually speeds up growth plate fusion. By preventing androgen by being converted to estrogen, you buy more time for you to grow. Without anti-estrogen therapy, one might stop growing totally and irreversibly at around 20 years of age. If one gets on anti-estrogen therapy, one can expect to grow for many years more, and, according to a clinical study, grow 5.1cm taller than estiamted adult height. I hope that before taking anti-estrogen that you seek the help of your physician, or better still, an endocrinologist. If not, the least you should do is to take an X-ray or your hand and verify if you have completed epiphyseal fusion. If that is so, ABSOLUTELY NO DRUG OR THERAPY can help you grow taller besides Limb Extension Surgery. Anti-estrogen, or aromatase blockers, are available widely and might not require a prescription. They should be safe, but given that they deal with the brain, if you experience and neurologic effects like uncontrollable shaking of your hand, stop treatment and seek professional advice. Examples of anti-estrogen can be Letrivole, Tamoxifen and many more.

THOSE UNDER 15-16 ( or about that age )
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For those who are below 15-16, I hate to repeat this, but do seek your doctor’s advice you are very short. If the doctor refuses to do anything, seek another doctor’s opinion. If all else fails, you can follow what I outline below.

Height is largely based on genetic factors. The smaller factors can be the amount of growth factors in your blood, the function of your pituitary gland and also nutritional and sleep factors. Do note that stretching or excercise has not been proven to result in a permanent increase of height.

As an endocrinologist, I must state that even I and everyone DO NOT AT ALL understand fully the workings of the growth factors. What we know is limited. Let me highlight briefly what we know. We know that height is influenced by several growth factors, such as the amount of Insulin-like Growth Factor 1, the amount of Growth Hormone, the amount of Hormone which stimulates Growth Hormone release, and the amount of other minor growth factors. Testosterone does not in any way lead to increased adult stature. It can kickstart puberty if you have not shown any signs of puberty yet, but it definitely has not been shown to increase adult stature in ANY MEDICAL JOURNALS OR CLINICAL STUDIES. Do note that I emphasize MEDICAL JOURNALS and CLINICAL STUDIES. Whatever you do, do try to find more information from these sources as, chances are, they are scientifically carried out and their results and statements should be quite accurate and reliable.

That aside, let me note what YOU CAN DO to increase your height. This is what is under your control. The options to increase growth factors are

(a) Increase HGH or the hormone which promotes HGH release ( sorry, I don’t recall the exact name )
(b) Increase IGF-1 levels

Increasing HGH level is risky at best, and this I cannot say anything about. Why risky? Not only can HGH result in LOWERED FINAL ADULT HEIGHT when taken inappropriately ( it may lead to earlier growth plate fusion and compromised or stunted height ), it can also disfigure you, or make you disproportionate, FOR LIFE. (a) is best done with the monitoring of a medical professional, not by yourself. I have seen cases of HGH injections or oral supplementation being administered wrongly even by medical professionals and this means you should NOT attempt home supplementation of HGH or any pro-hormones, like L-arginine or Creatine.

The safest you can do, without professional advice, is to increase IGF-1 levels. Again, this field is not understood by endocrinologists but what we do know is that many trials have demonstrated that IGF-1 levels correspond to increased height. IGF-1 can be given as injections, and this, I believe, would lead to complete and total absorption into the bloodstream and growth plates. IGF-1 can also be taken orally, without prescription, by taking Bovine Colostrum. Now, I do not know whether the IGF-1 in Colostrum is absorbed into your blood and make you taller. I also do not know the effects of very very high levels of IGF-1 or Colostrum on your final adult height. Therefore, don’t act smart or whatever. IGF-1 supplementation is not recommended above 500mg per day. DO NOT TAKE MORE THAN THAT AMOUNT. Besides height-related effects, it is well documented that IGF-1 will lead to increased cell mutation, or a higher cancer risk.

For those around this age, you can also do anti-estrogen therapy, but again, it is risky. I recommend you do not take it yet until you are 16.0 years of age. What you can do is to drink 1 or 2 glasses of milk a day. This contains approx. 20-30mg of IGF-1. This is especially important if you have not started puberty yet. If you have already started puberty, it should still work, and work well it should ( at least, that is what doctors think )

Two more things you can do.

Daily supplemenation of the following nutrients at about these amounts should be instrumental in increasing final adult stature. Also, this is not a joke, but for males, do not ejaculate often. If you do, take some Zinc. Ejaculating will lead to loss of approx. 5mg of Zinc. For one day’s dose, try not to exceed 30mg zinc. ( although toxic effects are reported only above 50mg )

The multivitamins below should be safe and should be taken everyday. The nutrients and vitamins and minerals below, have been what I have gleaned from many sources and forums, along with the help of my hospital nutritionalist, to be instrumental to growth.

Thiamin (as Thiamin Mononitrate) 75 mg
Riboflavin (Vitamin B-2) 75 mg
Niacin (as Niacinamide) 75 mg
Folic Acid 400 mcg
Vitamin B-12 (as Cyanocobalamin) 75 mg
Calcium (as Calcium Carbonate) 100 mg
Iodine (as Kelp) 150 mcg
Zinc (as Zinc Oxide) 15 mg
Copper (as Copper Sulfate) 250 mcg
Manganese (as Manganese Sulfate) 6 mcg
Boron (as Boron Citrate) 100 mcg
Choline (as Choline Bitartrate) 35 mg

You might also want to take Potassium, which is found in bananas. All supplements do not carry much potassium as it might cause heart attack ( serious! )

The last one is of course, to get enough sleep. 8 hours of sleep is recommended AT ONE GO. Do not count naps in. 8 hours at night.

Specific to those who are 15.5-16 : You might want to start on anti-estrogen therapy since your plates are already fusing ( maybe halfway thru ). Before that, do a bone X-ray if you want, to determine if growth plates are fused already. ( else you’ll be wasting your money ). You should also seek medical help immediately if you are still VERY SHORT. The window for HGH therapy is up to 16, I believe.

Me: This post is more to show to anyone who is interested at what types of supplement pills are being branded and sold on the internet for the Chinese community. Again, I can’t read what the chinese words say. I do know that the word in Chinese for “tall” is “gao” so I would guess the first product being showns and advertised “GAOMAX” is a product being sold as a height increase supplement. 

From my background and my educational experience, I have a personal bias against non-western medicine which include ideas like homeopathy, aryuvedic medicine, and chinese herbs. However, I only really care about what works. If these ideas and method work, I wouldn’t care a damn bit where they originated. It is just that I don’t believe these oral supplements being sold online are effective. Don’t buy this stuff.  BUT that is just my own personal opinion. You are your own person so you should make your own decisions on what you think is right and good. 

If you want to try out the products, that is cool with me. If you get results and grow taller, that would be even better. I don’t want to stop anyone from buying these products because we should never say that something is impossible or can never work. That would only limit us and keep us from opening up our minds to greater possibilities. 

The website links these products were found from are HERE. The name of the website is Zhong Yao which roughly translated into English as Chinese Medicine or Chinese Traditional Medicine.

There is a picture clip of the types of pills sold below you can see.

While doing my search to find other links and sources which can validate the stories that people have manage dot gain height from using Chinese Traditional Medicine i.e. Homeopathy, I stumbled upon a link which shows what appears to be a real patent written on a Chinese based website which talks about a herbal/homeopathic mixture which can  increase a person’s height. I can’t tell right now whether this patent and document is just a joke, scam, or fake. There is very little I can do since I can’t read or write Chinese. I don’t even have any idea how you are supposed to entree chinese characters in the computers so I am stuck. If it was in English I would be able to do some searching for the sources and creators of this patent.

My Interpretation On This Invention/ Device

If you look at the far corner of the link I provided, it shows that this document was found from the website ChemYQ.com which is a Chinese Database where people can search for chemical names and compounds. From what I found I would guess you can also find Patents created by fellow Chinese.

This the concoction composition and ingredients below found form the source link page.

The present invention relates to a Chinese medicine capable of obviously promoting health development of human body, increasing height of body and promoting brain development. Said invention uses the Chinese medicinal materials of ginseng 0.2-2g, ass hide glue 5-15g, oyster shell 1-6g, turtle shell 0.5-2g as main material, and uses white poria, 0.5-3g, silkworm droppings 0.5-2g and gizzard lining 0.5-2g as auxiliary material. It can be made into capsule, pill and oral liquor.

A clip of the patent information is is placed below. From this link HERE.

Here is the Chinese Translated version of the picture clip above. Can any of you regular readers read Chinese or understand what they are saying?

Me: Recently I posted a post for a patent entitled “Method for non-invasive electrical stimulation of epiphyseal plate growth” and there has been some good response. Tyler told me to get in contact with the patent’s inventor, a Carl T Brighton who I did research on by searching google.

It turns out this Carl T. Brighton is a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania for the Mckay Orthopaedic Research Laboratory. This is the resource link of the page HERE. Here is Professor/Doctor Brighton’s contact information below. He is a MD and a Ph.D. wow.

However that is not what I wanted to talk about. I have worked in academics and industry before, for professors doing bimolecular research in the university lab and for research based companies looking for HIV vaccines so would I would guess that this Brighton guy acted more like a scientific advisor or chief science research officer for the company Biolectron Inc.

This is what the company Biolectron Inc. was doing (from Bloomberg Businessweek website HERE).

What I will be trying to do is first try to get in contact with this Dr. Brighton guy and ask about his research and this extremely old patent he had created nearly 30 years ago. from what I know about patent laws, which is very little, people spent tens of thousands or even millions of dollars to buy patents to protect intellectual property. Most patents have a working life of like 12 years, which after that they lose their power and other people can then look at the “black box’ magic inside. However, there are companies like Apple , HP, and Genentech which have used their lawyers to keep trade secrets and patents from the public eye for even decades by using legal procedure to extend the life of patents longer and longer.

I will also be trying to get in contact with the people of Biolecrton Inc., like the CEO Adam Rudolph Johnson. All I really have to do is type in his name into Linkedin and his profile should appear. These days almost every professional uses and has a LinkedIn profile. Even if he doesn’t work at Biolectron anymore he would have still put it on his CV/Resume for past experience. If I can sent him an email or Inmail, I might be able to get more information on the type of devices this Biolectron company was developing.

On a stroke of amazing, pure crazy luck I managed to find on EBAY many devices being sold that was made and created by the company. Just type the word “biolectron” into ebay and see what pops up.

Here is a picture of all of the devices available for you to purchase, with one that is supposed to help increase your epiphyseal plate in your distal tibial region that is only for $10. A very good deal.

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For one of my next posts I am going to try to review all of the devices on sale and try to make an educated guess at which device will work the best and have the most possible height increase ability.