Drop the Stereotypes

Misperceptions about the traits of "typical" Americans, Brazilians, Chinese, and other groups are rampant, according to research conducted by a pair of scientists at the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health. Some of their findings:

Americans believe the typical American is very assertive, and Canadians believe the typical Canadian is submissive, but in fact Americans and Canadians have almost identical scores on measures of assertiveness, a little above the world average. Looking at other personality traits, the researchers found that Indian citizens type themselves as unconventional and open to a wide range of new experiences, but measurements of personality show that they are more conventional than the rest of the people in the world. Czechs believe that Czechs are antagonistic and disagreeable, but when personality is actually observed, Czechs score higher than most people in the world on measures of altruism and modesty.