Don’t forget selection bias. Even if purely objective and accurate measurements are possible, almost everyone thinks they’re less beautiful than everyone else.
Amy’s self-image is likely formed by seeing herself in a mirror before and during grooming, where she sees her friends and others mostly already made-up. Selection bias (the true average non-representative observations) leads her to believe that she’s on average less well groomed than anyone else.
Similarly in other’s reactions. Rejections and bad experiences tend to be private, where successful interactions are more often shared and reviewed with others. A straight average of all your experiences compared with those experiences that people have shared with you will make those others seem better off.
And, of course “beautiful” is a fairly poorly-defined word. It’s not a very good target for debiasing, as it’s very hard to measure an improvement in estimation. How does your post change if Amy is, in fact, less generally attractive than her friends?
Actually, what’s the goal here? This isn’t a topic where accurately assessing oneself is usually recommended, but rather to worry less and believe yourself beautiful. Are you trying to increase readers’ self-confidence, or to help them rationally decide whether to put more effort into their appearance, or something else?
I’m very careful about what exactly I’m recommending.
The gist is that we should all know how beautiful we are.
Which some people interpret as meaning we should all think we’re beautiful.
But I think it probably better if we all know exactly how beautiful we are.
Naturally, “beautiful” is not really the point, per se. The idea is, whatever aesthetic you’re judging, if you want to embody it (or if other people want you to embody it), then deviations from it will be considered negatively, and loss aversion will focus your attention on those deviations. It applies to whatever you might be judging about yourself.
Don’t forget selection bias. Even if purely objective and accurate measurements are possible, almost everyone thinks they’re less beautiful than everyone else.
Amy’s self-image is likely formed by seeing herself in a mirror before and during grooming, where she sees her friends and others mostly already made-up. Selection bias (the true average non-representative observations) leads her to believe that she’s on average less well groomed than anyone else.
Similarly in other’s reactions. Rejections and bad experiences tend to be private, where successful interactions are more often shared and reviewed with others. A straight average of all your experiences compared with those experiences that people have shared with you will make those others seem better off.
And, of course “beautiful” is a fairly poorly-defined word. It’s not a very good target for debiasing, as it’s very hard to measure an improvement in estimation. How does your post change if Amy is, in fact, less generally attractive than her friends?
Actually, what’s the goal here? This isn’t a topic where accurately assessing oneself is usually recommended, but rather to worry less and believe yourself beautiful. Are you trying to increase readers’ self-confidence, or to help them rationally decide whether to put more effort into their appearance, or something else?
Yes, you make a very good point.
I’m very careful about what exactly I’m recommending.
The gist is that we should all know how beautiful we are.
Which some people interpret as meaning we should all think we’re beautiful.
But I think it probably better if we all know exactly how beautiful we are.
Naturally, “beautiful” is not really the point, per se. The idea is, whatever aesthetic you’re judging, if you want to embody it (or if other people want you to embody it), then deviations from it will be considered negatively, and loss aversion will focus your attention on those deviations. It applies to whatever you might be judging about yourself.