- So Shane and I were having a conversation about how
we think that we're pretty good at most things.
- You know, we do all right.
- I think we're above average.
- Yeah. Do you think you're a good driver?
- I think I'm a solid eight.
- That's great!
- Yeah, I use my blinker all the time.
- That's important.
- Yes.
- Smarts, what do you think intelligent would put you?
- Once again, an eight.
I graduated, so I think I'm pretty good at that.
How about you?
- That's half the battle.
Probably eight or nine, sure.
- All right!
Do you think most people think
that they're above average?
- Probably.
- Should we find out?
- Yes.
- Let's do it.
- Okay.
(upbeat music)
- [Voiceover] Yessica went out into the streets of L.A.
to see how people ranked themselves
in terms of attractiveness.
- It's just for science.
It's an experiment.
It's going to be great.
- Alright.
- Do you like science?
- On a scale from one to ten,
how attractive do you think you are?
- Five-ish.
- A five-ish?
You look in the mirror, you say,
"Oooh, girl, I am a..."
- On a good day, I could be an eight or a nine.
- I'm going to say ten.
- Seven.
- I'm nine.
- Like a 7.5.
- How about a 8.9?
- Hell yeah!
- I have to be real with myself.
- Yeah, no, be super real with me real quick, yes!
All right, 8.9.
- And that's kind of perfect, so maybe 9.1.
- It looks like people on the streets of L.A.
think they're pretty attractive.
And they are.
We need more data, so I'm going to send out this survey
to people in the office,
to see how honest, smart, and how good of drivers
they think they are.
- [Voiceover] Over a hundred people replied
to the survey, and after crunching the numbers,
we saw that there were some tens,
and even a few twos, which makes me sad.
But most people put themselves at a seven or eight,
above average.
I mean, we are a pretty awesome group of folks,
but are we all above average?
Can everyone be above average?
No!
That's a statistical impossibility.
But it turns out that most everyone ranks themselves
to be above average.
This effect is called the "illusory superiority complex."
In a study on this effect, people volunteered
to have their faces Photoshopped in a multitude of ways:
some subjectively more attractive,
some less,
and were asked to pick out the unaltered photo.
- Nine.
Gosh, this is really hard.
Nine, I feel like my eyes are too far apart.
Damn it, what do I look like in real life?
Three?
- [Voiceover] The subjects tended to choose
one of the more attractive Photoshopped photos,
because they related more to the perfected image.
So, while Dove commercials are telling us that
we rank ourselves too low...
- Do you think you're more beautiful than you say?
- [Woman in commercial] Yeah.
- [Voiceover] We actually do the opposite.
We think we're the shit.
Most of us think we're above average in health,
better than most people at our jobs,
and even better at self-assessing ourselves than others.
So, is it bad to think so highly of yourself?
Well, it makes it a little harder to put yourself
in someone else's shoes, because their shoes suck.
But for the most part, it's fantastic that
we love ourselves so much.
A slightly inflated sense of self allows us to function
in this rough and tumble world,
where people are constantly judging us and our self-worth.
So, continue being a super rad badass,
but next time you think everyone's an idiot but you,
just remember, we can't all be above average.
(upbeat music)