Insight: Why We Are Less Self-Aware Than We Think—and What to Do About It

by Tasha Eurich

KEY CONCEPTS AND TAKEAWAYS: CHAPTER 3 Steve disease: A condition where we believe ourselves to be smarter, funnier, thinner, better-looking, more socially skilled, athletic, and better drivers than we actually are. Dunning-Kruger Effect: The least competent people tend to be the most confident about their abilities and performance. Braver but wiser: The decision to discover the truth about ourselves on our own terms, along with a positive mindset and a sense of self-acceptance. The Three blind spots: We can’t always assess what we know (Knowledge Blindness), how we feel (Emotion Blindness), or how we’re behaving (Behavior Blindness). Overcoming blind spots Identify our assumptions. Confront our assumptions. Keep learning—especially in areas where we think we know a lot. Seek feedback from others. *1 People often ask me whether there are people who consistently under-rate themselves. The answer is yes—although these people tend to be fewer and farther between. Yet just as overconfidence hurts our self-awareness, failing to appreciate our strengths shows a different kind of un-self-awareness. *2 It’s been shown that, in general, we become more accurate at self-assessing between the ages of 25 and 35, but our accuracy tends to decrease between 35 and 45. Also, and quite shockingly, business students, compared to students majoring in physical sciences, social sciences, and the humanities, most strongly inflated their self-assessments relative to their objective performance. *3...