Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London, London, UK.
The Alan Turing Institute, London, UK.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jul 5;13(1):10844. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-30937-w.
Cognitive abilities can vary widely. Some people excel in certain skills, others struggle. However, not all those who describe themselves as gifted are. One possible influence on self-estimates is the surrounding culture. Some cultures may amplify self-assurance and others cultivate humility. Past research has shown that people in different countries can be grouped into a set of consistent cultural clusters with similar values and tendencies, such as attitudes to masculinity or individualism. Here we explored whether such cultural dimensions might relate to the extent to which populations in 46 countries overestimate or underestimate their cognitive abilities in the domain of spatial navigation. Using the Sea Hero Quest navigation test and a large sample (N = 383,187) we found cultural clusters of countries tend to be similar in how they self-rate ability relative to their actual performance. Across the world population sampled, higher self-ratings were associated with better performance. However, at the national level, higher self-ratings as a nation were not associated with better performance as a nation. Germanic and Near East countries were found to be most overconfident in their abilities and Nordic countries to be most under-confident in their abilities. Gender stereotypes may play a role in mediating this pattern, with larger national positive attitudes to male stereotyped roles (Hofstede's masculinity dimension) associated with a greater overconfidence in performance at the national level. We also replicate, with higher precision than prior studies, evidence that older men tend to overestimate their navigation skill more than other groups. These findings give insight into how culture and demographics may impact self-estimates of our abilities.
认知能力差异很大。有些人在某些技能上表现出色，而另一些人则很吃力。然而，并非所有自称为天才的人都是如此。自我评估的一个可能影响因素是周围的文化。一些文化可能会放大自信，而另一些文化则培养谦逊。过去的研究表明，不同国家的人可以被分为一组具有相似价值观和倾向的一致文化群体，例如对男子气概或个人主义的态度。在这里，我们探讨了这些文化维度是否与 46 个国家的人口在多大程度上高估或低估其在空间导航领域的认知能力有关。我们使用了《海洋英雄大冒险》（Sea Hero Quest）导航测试和一个大型样本（N=383187），发现国家文化群体在相对于实际表现的自我评估能力方面往往具有相似性。在抽样的世界人口中，较高的自我评分与更好的表现相关。然而，在国家层面上，作为一个国家的自我评分较高并不意味着其表现更好。发现日耳曼语系和近东国家对其能力最为自信，而北欧国家对其能力最缺乏自信。性别刻板印象可能在调节这种模式中起作用，更大的国家对男性刻板角色的积极态度（霍夫斯泰德的男性化维度）与国家层面上对表现的更大自信相关。我们还复制了比先前研究更高的精度的证据，即年龄较大的男性往往比其他群体高估自己的导航技能。这些发现深入了解了文化和人口统计学因素如何影响我们对自身能力的自我评估。
