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- NEW YORK (Reuters
Health) -- In general, people see themselves as kind, generous and fair--even
a step above the less-altruistic masses. And a lot of these people are
fooling themselves, new research suggests.
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- Researchers have consistently found that the average
person considers his moral character to be stronger than his neighbor's.
One question has been whether these ``holier-than-thou'' types are underestimating
others or overestimating themselves. Four new studies of Cornell University
students suggest it is the latter.
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- ``People consistently overestimate themselves, but they're
pretty accurate about others,'' David Dunning, a professor of psychology
at the Ithaca, New York, university told Reuters Health.
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- In several experiments, Dunning and colleague Nicholas
Epley found that while students did a fine job of predicting whether their
classmates would act selflessly, they painted unrealistic portraits of
themselves. The researchers report their findings in the December issue
of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
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- Dunning and Epley had different groups of students participate
in experiments that tested how they perceived themselves and others, and
whether these perceptions matched their actions. For example, students
were asked to predict whether they would buy at least one flower in order
to benefit a charity. They also predicted what percentage of their peers
would fork over the cash.
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- While 83% said they would buy a flower, they thought
far less of their peers--on average, students said 56% of their classmates
would donate to the charity. When it came time to put their money where
their mouths were, however, only half of the students who said they would
buy a flower did so. On the other hand, their predictions about their classmates
were close to reality. This pattern was consistent across the four studies.
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- When it comes to predicting what others will do, Dunning
explained, people necessarily draw upon what they have observed of the
``average'' person. When people have to assess themselves, he said, they
tend to ``spin stories'' that help them excuse their past transgressions
and focus on the good things have done.
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- Dunning said he was surprised by the accuracy of the
students' predictions for others. While he thought the students would be
overly cynical about their peers' moral character, they turned out to be
on the mark. Instead, they overinflated themselves.
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- That is not to say people are no good deep down. ``A
lot of people,'' Dunning noted, ``do act in moral and altruistic ways.''
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- But a person who puts too much stock in himself may too
harshly judge others. The ``cost of overestimating yourself,'' Dunning
said, is not realizing that had you been in a certain situation, you might
have done the same thing you consider immoral in others.
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- ``Most of us,'' he said, ``are pretty typical.''
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- SOURCE: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
2000;79:861-875.
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