Exception To The Rule

I'm pretty sure I can get away with applying the 80-20 rule, or the 83-percent rule here, but I'm actually aware of proper scientific studies about where people think they rank in terms of for example intelligence, beauty, sex and so on.

I do know that when I ask my junior staff members where they rank their performance against their peers, no one says that they rank below average. For some that's confidence, and for some it is legitimately so, but we cannot ALL be above-average. Same with ugliness, or sexual prowess and several other traits.

It is in the nature of man to believe that the exception to the rule applies to himself. Also it is his nature to be insulted when the exception does not apply. People are quick to delude themselves that they are special. And in some small local way people are. However it goes wrong when an individual translates this into a larger scale, and expects that it still applies. That's when people get into politics.