fair, kind, considerate, and cooperative than others. Research by Nicholas Epley and David Dunning (2000) focuses on whether this tendency to believe one’s self as above-average is the result of overly cynical views of their peers and accurate perceptions of themselves or overestimations of themselves and accurate perceptions of others. This experiment consisted of four studies in which participants predicted their own behavior in a given situation, as well as predicted the behavior of their peers in a given situation (buying flowers to benefit a charity, cooperating with a partner in the prisoner‘s dilemma game, donating money to charities, and choosing either themselves or a partner to participate in an unpleasant experimental task). These predictions were then compared to the actual behavior exhibited by participants. The results found that participants predicted that they would act more charitable and kind than their peers. Participants also overestimated their charitable behaviors while underestimating, although slightly, the charitable behaviors of their peers. The participants predicted that they would behave more generously than they actually did. Because the participants greatly overestimated their own behaviors but were more accurate in predicting the behaviors of others, Epley & Dunning concluded that the inflated self assessments were due to errors in self, rather than errors in social prediction (Epley & Dunning, 2000). Thus, the experiment demonstrates the way in which judgment biases can cause erroneous perceptions of the self in a social context.More research by Justin Kruger and David Dunning (1999) explores people’s tendencies to hold overly favorable views about their own abilities in social and intellectual spheres. Kruger and Dunning argued that “The same knowledge that underlies the ability to produce correct judgment is also the knowledge that underlies the ability to recognize co...
