"Researchers attempt to measure how often people oversell themselves in society"

Parent Cafe
1

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/04/26/rich-guys-are-most-likely-have-no-idea-what-theyre-talking-about-study-finds/
http://ftp.iza.org/dp12282.pdf

In the study, they asked participants about their knowledge of 16 topics on a five point scale. But 3 of the topics were fictitious.

Those more prone to claiming knowledge about the fictitious topics were:

  • In Canada and the US, compared to other English speaking places (lowest tendency in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland).
  • Male (though the gender gap was less in the US and Canada).
  • High SES (though the SES gap was less in the US, Canada, and England).
  • Immigrant (though the immigrant/non-immigrant gap was almost none in the US and small in Australia and Canada).
2

Tone of the first comments to the WP article summed it up well: “People will happily buy the most astonishing BS if it comes from a confident white man.”

3

^May be so, but the linked article appears to refer to 15 year olds, and doesn’t mention race. I wonder if confident black men are so much more modest and realistic.