So Unfair

A recent Monster poll of 14,066 people found that 41% of job seekers would be insulted to be offered a low bonus; 7% of those respondents said they'd rather receive nothing, the November issue of Workspan Weekly reported. (Given the current economic environment) why do we set ourselves up for dissapointment?

A 1999 study by Kruger and Dunning looked into people's tendency to hold overly favorable views of their own abilities. Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability (they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd percentile while scoring on the 12th).

The Dunning-Kruger effect could help explain some of the ill-feelings surrounding annual performance appraisals. "If you ask successful professionals to rate themselves against their peers" Marshall Goldsmith writes "80 to 85 percent will rate themselves in the top 20 percent of their peer group". In other words, a large number of people will always be unhappy.

The really bad news is that if you look back and feel you have generally received unfair performance ratings you could be suffering (in the words of the researchers) "a dual burden: Not only would (you) be reaching erroneous conclusions and making unfortunate choices, (your) incompetence will be robbing you of the metacognitive ability to realize it!"