Overconfidence and Excess Entry: An Experimental Approach

Psychological studies show that most people are overconfident about their own relative abilities, and unreasonably optimistic about their futures (e.g., Neil D. Weinstein, 1980; Shelly E. Taylor and J. D. Brown, 1988). When assessing their position in a distribution of peers on almost any positive trait-like driving ability (Ola Svenson, 1981), income prospects, or longevity-a vast majority of people say they are above the average, although of course, only half can be (if the trait is symmetrically distributed).