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.