Many studies show that the vast majority of people believe themselves to be above average in many areas. Of course that’s a statistical impossibility, but the self-deception is prevalent. In the field of psychology, it is called a positive illusion, and humans are full of them.
It seems, for the most part, that we are pretty much incapable of accurate self-assessment. How else do you explain the fact that most people rate themselves as above average drivers. Are you kidding me? I know it’s not possible, but it certainly seems to me that most people are below average drivers.
There are many examples. There is the famous study wherein 94% of college professors rated themselves above average relative to their peers, but the most ironic of all was the one where people said they were more likely than their peers to provide accurate self-evaluations.
This inaccurate self-evaluation is also true in the health arena, where the majority are unrealistically optimistic about how healthy they are. Usually, being optimistic is thought to be a good thing, but in this instance, it can be problematic as it relates to life insurance, for two reasons.
First, there is usually no sense of urgency when there is no perceived problem, and people who believe they are healthier than they actually are generally see no problems. Second, when confronted with health related problems, they are often dismissed because, “Hey, I’m healthy. No need to worry.”
I’ve had people with a host of health issues get indignant with me because they didn’t receive a preferred underwriting classification. This could be because they are unrealistically optimistic about how healthy they are or because they are ignoring the problem, but whatever the reason, someone who is fifty pounds overweight has more problems than their life insurance premium.
Some positive illusions are relatively harmless. Does it really matter that we think we are better self-assessors than our peers? But others have the potential to be damaging or even deadly. Being unrealistically optimistic about our health can have negative ramifications if it prevents us from getting the treatment that we need or if it prevents or delays us from getting the life insurance that we need.
So the chances are that you suffer from some positive illusions, because we all do; it’s human nature. If they are of the harmless variety, no need to worry. But if they can affect you or your loved ones, they need to be addressed. The problem is we will probably need help in addressing them, because we are such lousy self-evaluators.