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The illusion of scholastic incompetence and peer acceptance in primary school

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Abstract

This paper reports results from two studies aimed at examining whether perception of social acceptance and actual social acceptance differ according to the presence of an illusion of scholastic incompetence. Results of both studies conducted in Belgium and in Quebec (respectively 179 and 543 participants) show that children’s illusion of scholastic incompetence is linked to a negative perception of social acceptance. However, according to the evaluation by peers, social acceptance of those children is similar to the others. This suggests a generalization of the negative bias of self-evaluation to both academic and social domains. The discussion proposes further variables that could improve the understanding of the origin of the illusion of incompetence.

Résumé

Cet article rapporte les résultats de deux études visant à examiner si le sentiment d’acceptation par le groupe des pairs et l’acceptation réelle par ces derniers diffèrent selon que les élèves présentent un problème d’illusion d’incompétence scolaire. Autant dans l’étude réalisée en Belgique que dans celle faite au Québec (respectivement 179 et 543 participants), les résultats indiquent que l’illusion d’incompétence s’accompagne d’un biais d’évaluation négatif de son acceptation sociale. L’évaluation des pairs n’indiquant pas que les élèves affectés par l’illusion d’incompétence sont moins bien acceptés que les autres, ces résultats suggèrent une généralisation d’un biais d’évaluation négatif du domaine scolaire au domaine social. La discussion propose des pistes à explorer pour comprendre les origines de l’illusion d’incompétence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, succursale Centre-Ville, C. P. 8888, H3C 3P8, Montréal, Québec, Canada

    Marie-Noëlle Larouche (Doctoral student) & Thérèse Bouffard

  2. Department of Psychology, Université Catholique de Louvain, Place C. Mereier, 10, B-1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Benoît Galand

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  1. Marie-Noëlle Larouche
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  2. Benoît Galand
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  3. Thérèse Bouffard
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This reasearch was support by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Government of Canada) and the Fonds FQRSC (Government of Quebec).

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Larouche, MN., Galand, B. & Bouffard, T. The illusion of scholastic incompetence and peer acceptance in primary school. Eur J Psychol Educ 23, 25–39 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173138

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173138

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