How do you rate yourself as a driver?
If you’re a pom, then you probably think you’re a better driver than anyone else on the road.
That’s the finding of British research into how motorists rate themselves in comparison to other drivers.
BuyaCar.co.uk asked more than 1000 motorists how they ranked their own driving skills in comparison with others.
Two thirds either believe they are “among the best” or “better than most” drivers, while only a quarter see themselves as “average”.
But get this . . . just seven per cent of Brits admit there’s room for improvement in their driving.
Psychologists say the phenomenon of overestimating our own abilities is common in almost every area of our lives, particularly when we are young.
They even have a name for it – illusory superiority – and one study at the University of Wellington, New Zealand, warned the illusion can pose road safety risks.
One of the most widely agreed explanations is that the experience of receiving feedback from others – both positive and negative – is crucial in helping us to understand how competent or otherwise we are at a given task.
Because we are rarely accompanied by anyone other than friends or family when we’re driving, we rarely receive any independent feedback.
It also seems that the older we get, the more generous we are in assessing our own competence.
Drivers up to the age of 34 are most likely to admit to room for improvement or in a handful of cases – that ‘I’m a bad driver’.
In contrast, people aged 34 to 55 are most likely to describe themselves as “among the best” and in this group nobody at all was willing to identify as a bad driver.
BuyaCar.co.uk’s Austin Collins, said: “It’s amusing to find that so many drivers believe something about their status behind the wheel that is logically impossible.
“Most of us simply can’t be better at something than most other people.
“Perhaps the most amusing figure of all is the tiny proportion of people who believe they could improve as drivers.
“It suggests that we should all pay more attention to the mistakes we make at the wheel, even if we aren’t prepared to talk about them openly, because there is really always room for improvement,” he said.
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