We are all less risky and more skillful than our fellow drivers: Replication and extension of Svenson (1981)

The better-than-average effect refers to the tendency to rate oneself as better than the average person on desirable traits and skills. In a classic study, Svenson (1981) asked participants to rate their driving safety and skill compared to other participants in the experiment. Results showed that the majority of participants rated themselves as far above the median, despite the statistical impossibility of more than 50% of participants being above the median. We report a preregistered, well-powered (total N = 1,203), very close replication and extension of the Svenson (1981) study. Our results indicate that the majority of participants rated their driving skill and safety as above average. We added different response scales as an extension and findings were stable across all three mesaures. Thus, our findings are consistent with the original findings by Svenson (1981). Materials, data, and code are available at https://osf.io/fxpwb/

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Replication and Extension of Alicke (1985) Better-Than-Average Effect for Desirable and Controllable Traits

Social Psychological and Personality Science ◽

10.1177/1948550620948973 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 194855062094897

Author(s):

Ignazio Ziano ◽

Pui Yan (Cora) Mok ◽

Gilad Feldman

Keyword(s):

Confidence Interval ◽

The Self ◽

Mechanical Turk ◽

Average Effect ◽

Total N ◽

Original Formula ◽

Better Than

People tend to regard themselves as better than average. We conducted a replication and extension of Alicke’s classic study on trait dimensions in evaluations of self versus others with U.S. American Mechanical Turk workers in two waves (total N = 1,573; 149 total traits). We successfully replicated the trait desirability effect, such that participants rated more desirable traits as being more descriptive of themselves than of others (original: [Formula: see text] = .78, 95% confidence interval [CI] [.73, .81]; replication: sr 2 = .54, 95% CI [.43, .65]). The effect of desirability was stronger for more controllable traits (effect of Desirability × Controllability interaction on self–other-ratings difference; original: [Formula: see text] = .21, 95% CI [.12, .28]; replication: sr 2 = .07, 95% CI [.02, .12]). In an extension, we found that desirable traits were rated as more common for others, but not for the self. Thirty-five years later, the better-than-average effect appears to remain robust. All materials, data, and code are available at https://osf.io/2y6wj/ .

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Disclosure of CEO Pay: Governance, Benchmarking or the Better-than-Average Effect?

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.1658431 ◽

2010 ◽

Author(s):

Bart Dierynck ◽

Annelies Renders

Keyword(s):

Average Effect ◽

Ceo Pay ◽

Better Than

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Personal contact, individuation, and the better-than-average effect.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ◽

10.1037/0022-3514.68.5.804 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 68 (5) ◽

pp. 804-825 ◽

Cited By ~ 429

Author(s):

Mark D. Alicke ◽

M. L. Klotz ◽

David L. Breitenbecher ◽

Tricia J. Yurak ◽

et al

Keyword(s):

Personal Contact ◽

Average Effect ◽

Better Than

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The Influence of Method Factors on the Relation between Attitudes and Self-Reported Behaviors in the Assessment of Acculturation

European Journal of Psychological Assessment ◽

10.1027/1015-5759.22.1.4 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 4-12 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Judit Arends-Tóth ◽

Fons J.R. van de Vijver ◽

Ype H. Poortinga

Keyword(s):

Measurement Methods ◽

Measurement Unit ◽

Attitudes And Behaviors ◽

Response Scales ◽

Structural Equivalence ◽

And Behaviors ◽

Acculturation Attitudes ◽

The One ◽

Different Response ◽

Method Factors

The role of variation in response scales and measurement methods in the often implicitly assumed attitude-behavior exchangeability in the assessment of acculturation was investigated. Three levels of equivalence of acculturation attitudes and self-reported behaviors were studied: structural equivalence (identity of the internal structure of attitude and behavior), metric equivalence (identity of measurement unit for the two), and scalar equivalence (identity of measurement unit and scale origin). In three studies involving Turkish-Dutch adults a high overall level of structural equivalence was found, implying that acculturation attitudes and behaviors can be conceptualized using a single underlying construct (i.e., acculturation). Metric and scalar equivalence varied across life domains, response scales, and measurement methods: They were higher for the private than for the public domain, for identical than for different response scales, and for the one-statement than for the two-statement measurement method. We concluded that in the assessment of acculturation attitudes and behaviors can only be interchanged in highly restricted conditions.

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The Better-Than-Average Effect

The Self in Social Judgment ◽

10.4324/9780203943250-11 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 93-114

Keyword(s):

Average Effect ◽

Better Than

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Understanding the Average Impact of Microcredit Expansions: A Bayesian Hierarchical Analysis of Seven Randomized Experiments

American Economic Journal Applied Economics ◽

10.1257/app.20170299 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 57-91 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Rachael Meager

Keyword(s):

External Validity ◽

Hierarchical Models ◽

Hierarchical Analysis ◽

Randomized Experiments ◽

Average Effect ◽

Bayesian Hierarchical ◽

Heterogeneous Effects ◽

Average Impact ◽

The Impact ◽

Better Than

Despite evidence from multiple randomized evaluations of microcredit, questions about external validity have impeded consensus on the results. I jointly estimate the average effect and the heterogeneity in effects across seven studies using Bayesian hierarchical models. I find the impact on household business and consumption variables is unlikely to be transformative and may be negligible. I find reasonable external validity: true heterogeneity in effects is moderate, and approximately 60 percent of observed heterogeneity is sampling variation. Households with previous business experience have larger but more heterogeneous effects. Economic features of microcredit interventions predict variation in effects better than studies’ evaluation protocols. (JEL D14, G21, I38, O12, O16, P34, P36)

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