4.4.2. Results and Discussion
Ability to assess competence in others. As predicted, participants who scored in the bottom quartile were less able to gauge the competence of others than were their top-quartile counterparts. For each participant, we correlated the grade he or she gave each test with the actual score the five test-takers had attained. Bottomquartile participants achieved lower correlations (mean r = .37) than did top-quartile participants (mean r = .66), f(34) = 2.09, p < .05.3 For an alternative measure, we summed the absolute miscalibration in the grades participants gave the five test-takers and found similar results, M = 17 A (bottom quartile) vs. 9.2 (top quartile), f(34) = 2.49, p < .02.
Revising self-assessments. Table 1 displays the self-assessments of bottom- and top-quartile performers before and after reviewing the answers of the test-takers shown during the grading task. As can be seen, bottom-quartile participants failed to gain insight into their own performance after seeing the more competent choices of their peers. If anything, bottom-quartile participants tended to raise their already inflated self- estimates, although not to a significant degree, all fs(16) < 1.7.
With top-quartile participants, a completely different picture emerged. As predicted, after grading the test performance of five of their peers, top-quartile participants raised their estimates of their own general grammar ability, £(18) = 2.07, p = .05, and their percentile ranking on the test, f(18) = 3.61, p < .005. These results are consistent with the false-consensus effect account we have offered. Armed with the ability to assess competence and incompetence in others, participants in the top quartile realized that the performances of the five individuals they evaluated (and thus their peers in general) were inferior to their own. As a consequence, top-quartile participants became better calibrated with respect to their percentile ranking. Note that a false-consensus interpretation does not predict any revision for estimates of one's raw score, as learning of the poor performance of one's peers conveys no information about how well one has performed in absolute terms.
Indeed, as Table 1 shows, no revision occurred, r(18) < 1.
Summary. In sum, Phase 2 of Study 3 revealed several effects of interests. First, consistent with Prediction 2, participants in the bottom quartile demonstrated deficient metacognitive skills. Compared with top-quartile performers, incompetent individuals were less able to recognize competence in others. We are reminded of what Richard Nisbett said of the late, great giant of psychology, Amos Tversky. “The quicker you realize that Amos is smarter than you, the smarter you yourself must be” (R.E. Nisbett, personal communication, July 28, 1998). This study also supported Prediction 3, that incompetent individuals fail to gain insight into their own incompetence by observing the behavior of other people. Despite seeing the superior performances of their peers, bottom-quartile participants continued to hold the mistaken impression that they had performed just fine. The story for high-performing participants, however, was quite different. The accuracy of their self-appraisals did improve. We attribute this finding to a false-consensus