East meets West : an examination of the big-fish-little-pond effect in Western and non-Western countries

For many years the first author has been fortunate to have contact with a culturally diverse group of students who have attended an academically selective school in her neighborhood. Competition to gain entry to this particular school is very fi erce, so the students who attend it are all extremely intelligent, with IQs in the top 2%. They are all accomplished in many fi elds, tend to have a wonderful sense of humor, and are interesting company. But, what struck this co-author most about these young people was that, irrespective of their cultural background and of their academic achievements, they did not think of themselves as intelligent. In fact, if asked, they would insist that they were "just average," and this was consistent for even those students who did reach the top in one or two subjects. They did not seem to say this out of a false sense of modesty; rather they seemed to truly believe that they were of average intelligence. They had spent their high school years with so many other intelligent students that often they did not perform at the top of their grade, but received average, or below average, grades in some subjects, which led them to believe that they were not achieving. It seems that without that sense of accomplishment mentioned in Carlyle's quote above, these students did not have an accurate appraisal of their academic abilities.