I think cinephile's comments are too strong above, but there's some basis for a similar notion found in what's known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect:cinephile wrote:Generally, thinking you might be stupid is a sign you're pretty intelligent. Only stupid people think they're smart.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2 ... ger_effect
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly rating their ability much higher than average. This bias is attributed to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their mistakes.[1]
Actual competence may weaken self-confidence, as competent individuals may falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding. David Dunning and Justin Kruger of Cornell University conclude, "the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others".[2]
I don't know that much about it, but heard of it from an article I read a while back. It seems (you might want to read up more on it if you're interested) that there are cases where people who are "smart/competent" or "less smart/competent" misjudge their intelligence/competence in the opposite directions. The broad idea of what cinephile said may have some factual basis to it, but I definitely think it's too strong to say that only stupid people think they're smart. YOu can simply be arrogant or just plain honest or correct when saying you're smart and actually be smart. ...hehe......
One example is Bobby Fischer (arguably the greatest chess player of all time). His IQ was reportedly 180 and he revolutionized and dominated chess as a prodigy and the eventual GM world champion. But, he was brutally honest when saying that he was the best in the world before he even became the world champion. lol.
