In 1999, Justin Kruger and David Dunning showed that the weakest students on a logic test, scoring around the 12th percentile, rated themselves around the 62nd on average. That gap shows up often. But the famous curve with a “Mount Stupid” followed by a “valley of despair” appears nowhere in their paper. And statisticians have shown that part of the effect emerges even from purely random data.
Remembering is not replaying a recording — it is rebuilding. Each time you recall a memory, it becomes temporarily malleable and can be altered before being stored again. That is why two people can sincerely remember the same event… differently.
In 2003, Johnson and Goldstein compared European countries. Where you must tick a box to become a donor, consent rates ranged from 4% to 28%. Where you're a donor by default unless you opt out, they topped 85%. People aren't more generous on one side; most simply stick with whatever option was chosen for them.