“Illusory Superiority” or “Above Average effect” is a term that describes the phenomenon where individuals overestimate their own abilities and qualities relative to those around them. They perceive themselves as more superior or more worthy than others, and this applies to all fields whether work, level of intelligence, performance in certain tasks, certain rights …etc.
Despite the fact that this phenomenon is quite rare, it’s becoming more and more of a culture here in Egypt. It’s usual to find people at work who think that they are more competent than everyone else and deserve a raise or a higher position. It’s usual to find people, especially the elderly, driving their cars in the worst possible way and accusing you that you need to learn how to drive. It’s usual to see people who assume they perfected a certain task or that they were the top performers among their peers then discover that their performance was only below average.This act of overestimating capabilities reflects on them in every way.
Have you ever met someone who had an unpleasant life experience and claims that no one could ever feel his pain or his loss, that he is more sad than anyone else and screw everyone who’s trying to make him feel better? Have you ever encountered someone who has reached his target goal, and brags about how brilliant he is to have achieved his dreams while you didn’t? Have you ever been told “Etkalem ma3aya kowayes” or an “Enta mesh 3aref enta betkallem meen?” when you really had no clue where you went wrong or who were are talking to? Have you ever been with someone who thought you will be miserable if they left you? These are all reflections of people who think they are more superior than others, that they are being modest letting you talk to them in a certain way or demand a certain right.
Why Does This Happen?
Studies show that this is usually a result of not knowing thyself well enough due to several reasons, one of them is that Egypt is not culturally aware of the importance of psychological health. It wasn’t until recently that people accepted the fact that they can seek psychiatric help without being stigmatized or labelled as freaks.
The tendency of measuring competence generally based on the superiority in specific aspects can also be a reason. For example, people who are good at maths consequently categorize themselves as more intelligent individuals whose decisions are always right and you have no right to argue. People who excel at a certain job or sport think others are just average.
Misleading feedback is a major source of overestimating self-worth too; most people tend not to give a negative feedback, the thing that deprives us from hearing constructive criticism that could improve our future performance. Ignorant people who always get positive feedback give us doctors, engineers, writers, and all sorts of people who think they’re better than everyone and everything around them.
Finally, the most common syndrome among Egyptians is the “Holier-than-thou” syndrome. Here in Egypt, you can find people who suffer from this syndrome under every rock and behind every wall, people who think that they are holier than everyone else, that their beliefs and the way they are doing things are the only way and the right way, that they deserve heaven while others don’t and that God told them so.
How to Fight This?
On the personal level, one should increase his awareness and his knowledge, because as you learn about anything, you will find that there is still a lot more that you don’t know about. One should also take care of his psychological side, the more one learns about thyself, the better.
On the general level, we should really stop giving people false positive feedback about their accomplishments. If someone made an ugly painting, tell them it’s ugly, say the food doesn’t taste good, that your driving skills are crappy, that you should stop singing because you sound like a dying sheep, that you always come late and I can’t take your shit anymore. Stop telling people that they mean the world to you when they barely mean a thing. Stop telling people who are not good that they are good, this will give them the overestimation of self-worth and will end up telling you “Enta 3aref enta betkallem meen?”
