The Dunning–Kruger effect

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect

http://www.talyarkoni.org/blog/2010/07/07/what-the-dunning-kruger-effect-is-and-isnt/

  The investigations of Dunning and Kruger found that incompetent people tend to overestimate their competence, unlike more competent people. In other words, incompetent people are more confident in their competence than the competent people (this is an exaggeration; it would be more correct to say that incompetent people think they’re much better than they actually are).

  Speaking more generally, it seems that smart people are often less self-confident than stupid people. And I find rather convincing the idea that smart men are often less attractive for women, than common men (because women like self-confident men). Of course, intelligent men often achieve more success with women because their intellect helps them to be successful in life. In Russia I have often heard the thesis that nerds are less attractive for women than common men.

  In the second article the conclusions of Dunning and Kruger are criticized to some extent, but they are not rejected.

  I have also found an interesting graph; for me, this graph seems to be quite convincing, though here is a mistake in the picture - Dunning and Kruger have got the Ig Nobel Prize, not the Nobel one:

It is interesting that this effect is possibly less marked in East Asia. Wiki says that East Asians tend to underestimate their abilities, and see underachievement as a chance to improve themselves and get along with others. I have seen some mentions that the Asians are either more intelligent than the Caucasians, or more prone to be nerds, or both.