Trego's Mountain Ear

An article in the National Library of Medicine assures me that 65% of Americans ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6029792/ ) “65% of Americans believe they are above average in intelligence: Results of two nationally representative surveys”

Business insider had another sub-headline: “AAA released a study showing that 8 of 10 men think they’re above-average drivers.”

As I age, I’m more willing to face a few realities – my strength is not what it once was.  My reflexes aren’t as quick as they once were.  It’s hard to face my own physical decline and then look at numbers that show more than half of the folks in my world figure that they’re above average.

Intelligence is an easy thing to check – ask the survey question, then give the test.  The test is set up so that the median and the mean are the same.  Basically 50% are above average, and 50% are below.  It’s that simple.   And 65% thinking that they’re above average really isn’t that far off – the 65%/35% cutoff is somewhere between 94 and 95 IQ – very solidly in the normal range.

“Despite the fact that more than 90% of crashes involve human error, three-quarters (73 percent) of US drivers consider themselves better-than-average drivers. Men, in particular, are confident in their driving skills with 8 in 10 considering their driving skills better than average.” 

businessinsider.com

Driving ability is probably a little harder to analyze.  I’m probably above average on snow and ice – particularly if we do the test in Florida or Texas.  Still, I’d feel a lot safer on the road if 80% of the folks who shared it with me really were above average.  Still, I had a blepharoplasty a few years back – in my case it was plastic surgery to correct blind spots caused by sagging eyelids.  After the surgery I no longer asked myself “Where did that SOB come from?”  It doesn’t take much to reduce your driving ability.

I recall a retarded guy I met on a bus – he made a living from his bus pass.  The job was driving used cars from one dealership where the model wasn’t moving to another where they were.  I am certain that he was probably an above average driver despite being below average on intelligence.