Alicorn comments on That other kind of status - Less Wrong

72 Post author: Yvain 29 December 2009 02:45AM

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Comment author: CronoDAS 30 December 2009 02:44:55AM 4 points [-]

If a person has delusions of mediocrity or obscurity, how would we know? Most people aren't Extremely Impressive, and someone who actually is Extremely Impressive but insists otherwise is "just being modest".

Comment author: Alicorn 30 December 2009 03:13:25AM 6 points [-]

Well, there's also this.

Comment author: Unknowns 30 December 2009 08:24:37AM 4 points [-]

"Proof of success is dismissed as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they were more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be."

I would say it is common for people to think this for the simple reason that it is commonly true. I know it is true about myself.

Comment author: teageegeepea 30 December 2009 04:58:36AM 1 point [-]

I'd never heard of that, thanks for the pointer. Something seems suspicious about it being found most "among graduate students". Aren't grad students a major source for psych experiment data due to availability?

Comment author: orthonormal 30 December 2009 05:27:35AM 6 points [-]

Anecdotally, the high prevalence among grad students strikes me as quite correct; about half of the grad students I know have these worries, while my friends outside of academia seem to feel good about their performance when praised and reserve their self-doubt for actual occasions of criticism.

In my own case, I started getting those feelings in college, almost exactly when (for the first time I know of) I met someone indisputably smarter than me.

Comment author: byrnema 30 December 2009 05:49:41AM 2 points [-]

about half of the grad students I know have these worries,

Yes, seconded. Especially among women.

Comment author: Alicorn 30 December 2009 03:05:54PM 4 points [-]

Aren't grad students a major source for psych experiment data due to availability?

I think it's more undergrads, actually, who are a) more numerous and b) very likely to take an intro psych course no matter their major, in which courses it's possible to issue a requirement: either participation in a psych study, or a long paper nobody wants to write. (They can't outright require study participation, but they can make the alternative very unappealing.)