Intelligence, gender, and assessment method affect the accuracy of self-estimated intelligence

Tools

Von Stumm, Sophie. 2014. Intelligence, gender, and assessment method affect the accuracy of self-estimated intelligence. British Journal of Psychology, 105(2), pp. 143-153. ISSN 0007-1269 [Article]

No full text available

Official URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjop.12...

Abstract or Description

Self-estimates of intelligence (SEI), which influence to what extent people engage in and how well they perform at a task, are subject to distortion. Here, the distortion effects of individual differences in intelligence (IQ), gender, and proximal (with reference to test performance) and distal (with reference to IQ score distributions) assessments of SEI were tested in a sample of 200 British adults. The results showed that (1) people with lower IQ misestimated their SEI to a greater extent than people with high IQ; (2) this effect was more pronounced in distal than proximal measures of SEI; (3) SEI means did not differ significantly across gender but the IQ-related level of SEI distortion did; (4) this effect was greater for distal than proximal measurement; and (5) proximal SEI were on average less distorted than distal SEI scores and also correlated more closely with IQ. Overall, the findings suggest that the distal SEI assessment method resulted in greater gender- and IQ-related distortions of SEI.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12031

Additional Information:

This work was partially funded by the Central Research Fund of the University of London.