Self‐preserving assessments of skill?

The studies reported in this paper had two aims: ( a ) to identify which psychological variables underlie people's overly positive assessments of their own ability and ( b ) to explore the relationship between these and actual ability. In a first study, over 300 drivers assessed their driving ability in comparison to that of a novice. A positive view of own driving ability was directly related to the amount of accident‐free and endorsement‐free driving experience a driver had had and the driver's level of Neuroticism. It was negatively related to the number of errors drivers reported in other everyday tasks. In a second study, the actual driving skills of over 100 of the original subjects were assessed by a driving instructor. It was found that self‐assessments did not relate to actual ability, but instead to the comments made by the instructor and the subject's self‐assessment as measured during the earlier study. These results are discussed in terms of a stable, but inaccurate, self‐concept which is established as experience of the domain grows in the absence of contrary evidence.