Why Is Everyone Worse at Driving Than Me?

You’re almost certainly not as good a driver as you think. When asked, most drivers rate themselves as “above average”—a mathematical impossibility!

We are all inclined to think so many substandard drivers are hogging the streets because we suffer the human curse of exaggerating our own abilities—this is the Dunning-Kruger effect. It’s a mental quirk that clouds almost every area of our lives, although it was probably useful for emboldening our ancestors to be brave instead of cowering in a cave.

In tests, most people think they have performed better than they really did. The poorer our abilities, the more blissfully ignorant we are of the fact. Conversely, research shows that only the top experts judge themselves too harshly.

No one is immune to the Dunning-Kruger effect, and the only way to gain a realistic insight into your skills is to be independently assessed. Why not take an advanced driving course and find out whether the other drivers really are as inept as you think?

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safest drivers

One of the most reliable predictors of safe driving is not self-assessment but age, with the worst drivers at either end of the age spectrum.