People in higher social classes often overestimate their abilities

In an episode TV's "30 Rock," star Tina Fey asks a child who had accompanied her father to work what she'd learned that day. The girl said, "People who talk the most in meetings often know the least."

Out of the mouths of tweens — and now, social scientists.

A study shows that people who see themselves as being in a higher social class tend to have an exaggerated belief that they are more capable than their equally skilled lower-class colleagues.

This kind of overconfidence, says the study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, can be misinterpreted by others as proof of greater competence in situations such as job interviews.

"People who are overconfident rise through the hierarchy," said the study's author, University of Virginia management professor Peter Belmi. "And it takes a long time for people to figure out somebody might not be as competent as they seem." "We all want to believe our system rewards competence," but that's not always the case, he said.

He based his findings on four investigations involving more than 150,000 people in the United States and Mexico.

Essentially, he found that people with more education, more income, and a higher perceived social class believed that they would perform better on assigned tasks compared with their lower-class counterparts. They did not.

Then, students from families with household incomes around $40,000 took the same tests. They placed themselves in the 47th percentile; they were at the 55th.

A week later, the students from higher social classes were recorded in a lab during a mock hiring interview. More than 900 judges, recruited online, watched the videos and rated the applicants' competence as they saw it.

The result that Belmi found: "Individuals with relatively high social class were more overconfident. That in turn was associated with being perceived as more competent and ultimately more hirable, even though on average they were no better at the tests than their lower-class counterparts."

People from higher classes, Belmi said, are often told growing up that "they're God's gift to humanity." As such, they're encouraged to confidently express what they think and feel, even when they lack accurate knowledge, Belmi said.

Working- and lower-social-class people are raised to not think too highly of themselves and to know their place, he said. While middle- and upper-class people are taught to focus on themselves, lower-social-class folks are taught to be selfless and prioritize their family.

Often, Belmi said, overconfident upper-class people attain status by being the first to speak in groups, using a factual tone no matter what they're saying.

Throughout their lives, wealthy people have fewer real challenges than less well-off folks, and that makes them think they're pretty adept at handling life's problems, said David Elesh, emeritus sociology professor at Temple.