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competence
You see yourself as less capable than you are.
When tasks are difficult, people consistently exhibit a worse-than-average effect, underestimating their relative performance.
While people often report being above average at simple tasks, research shows this flips during hard tasks. Participants assume that if a task is difficult for them, it must be near-impossible for everyone else. They consequently rank their own competency below the actual group mean.
Your frustration with a difficult project is likely a reflection of the task's complexity, not your lack of talent.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Justin Kruger, 1999, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- What the check found
- The paper 'Unskilled and Unaware of It' (1999) does address this effect, though it is often conflated with the main finding regarding low-ability performers.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.