A chiefly American phenomenon where the unskilled will rate their ability at a task higher than average, whereas the legitimately skilled will think of themselves as below average.

This occurs for two reasons. First, the unskilled are unable to acknowledge or understand the reasons why they are unskilled, as they do not have enough knowledge of the field to be critical about their own skills, so they will assume that their limited competence ranks highly. Second, those who are legitimately skilled will incorrectly assume that everybody shares the same knowledge as them, but will also be aware of how much they don't know in the field, so will assume their abilities are below the average.

The effect is much more muted but still present in European countries, and mostly absent in Asian societies.