Ego & self-perception
The blind spots we hold about ourselves — competence, control and how we appear.
The hardest bias to see is the one about yourself. The Dunning–Kruger effect hides your own incompetence from you; the self-serving bias credits you for wins and blames the world for losses; the bias blind spot convinces you these apply to everyone else. Knowing them is the first, uncomfortable step toward calibration.
Key ideas here: Dunning–Kruger effect, Overconfidence effect, Self-serving bias, Illusory superiority, Bias blind spot — and 4 more below.
Cognitive biases
Dunning–Kruger effect
The Dunning–Kruger effect is the tendency for people with low competence in a domain to overestimate their ability — because the very skills needed to…
Overconfidence effect
The overconfidence effect is the gap between how accurate people think their judgements are and how accurate they actually are. When people say they…
Self-serving bias
Self-serving bias is the tendency to take credit for successes but blame failures on outside forces. A win proves your skill; a loss was bad luck,…
Illusory superiority
Illusory superiority is the tendency to overestimate your qualities relative to others — to rate yourself above average on skill, ethics, and…
Bias blind spot
The bias blind spot is the tendency to recognise cognitive biases in other people while failing to see them in yourself. We readily spot others’…
Illusion of control
The illusion of control is the tendency to overestimate how much influence you have over outcomes that are largely or entirely down to chance. We feel…
Optimism bias
Optimism bias is the tendency to overestimate the likelihood of good outcomes and underestimate the bad — believing you’re personally less at risk…
Illusion of transparency
The illusion of transparency is the tendency to overestimate how well others can perceive your inner states — your nervousness, feelings, or thoughts.…
Fundamental attribution error
The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to explain other people’s behaviour by their character but our own by circumstance. When someone…
Related topics
The books behind better thinking
Listen to any of these free. Start a free Audible trial and get your first audiobook on the house.
Prefer to read? The canonical picks:
- Thinking, Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman
- The Art of Thinking Clearly — Rolf Dobelli
- The Great Mental Models, Volume 1 — Shane Parrish
- Poor Charlie’s Almanack — Charlie Munger
- Super Thinking — Gabriel Weinberg & Lauren McCann
- Seeking Wisdom — Peter Bevelin
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Editorial synthesis © ReadGlobe. Each idea links to a full reference page with sources.