Question

Sylvie and Ray were sure that they had correctly answered most of the questions on a psychology test. However, they each scored less than 55 percent on the exam. This BEST illustrates: Please choose the correct answer from the following choices, and then select the submit answer button.

a.hindsight bias.
b.critical thinking.
c.perceiving order in random events.
d.overconfidence.

Answer 1

Answer: d.overconfidence

Explanation: Overconfidence is a bias to see our judgement and abilities in a better light than they actually are when viewed objectively. Sylvie and Ray display overconfidence here because their confidence judgement is higher than their objective accuracy.

Some factors that contribute to overconfidence in test taking are the perceived ease of the questions, and the desire for an answer to be true, either due to a bias or a desire to seem knowledgeable.