Remembering proper names as a potential exception to the better-than-average effect in younger and older adults.

ABSTRACT: People see themselves as better than average in many domains, from leadership skills to driving ability. However, many people-especially older adults-struggle to remember others' names, and many of us are aware of this struggle. Our beliefs about our memory for names may be different from other information; perhaps forgetting names is particularly salient. We asked younger and older adults to rate themselves compared with others their age on several socially desirable traits (e.g., honesty); their overall memory ability; and their specific ability to remember scientific terms, locations, and people's names. Participants demonstrated a better-than-average (BTA) effect in their ratings of most items except their ability to remember names, which both groups rated as approximately the same as

SUBMITTER: Hargis MB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8363054 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature