Andrew Fleshel

80% of People Don’t Really Know How to Think straight — Yet Are Convinced They’re Surrounded by Idiots

“2% of people think; 3% think they think; and 95% would rather die than think.”
(often attributed to George Bernard Shaw)

Incredible — yet obvious.

Almost everyone is convinced they can think independently, and most people see their own judgments as logical.

At the same time, findings associated with German neurophysiologist Gerhard Roth are often interpreted this way: only about 15–20 out of 100 consistently respond to rational arguments and evidence, while the majority are influenced more by social environment, emotional framing, and authority signals.

To be fair, even this very claim can itself appeal to emotion.

And yet I dare to assume that most readers will agree with it — and, most interestingly, will automatically place themselves in that 15–20% “thinking minority.”

According to the Dunning–Kruger effect, this is exactly what we should expect: many people with lower competence in a domain tend to overestimate their correctness and intellectual superiority.

In the classic work by David Dunning and Justin Kruger, participants with lower scores significantly overestimated their competence — precisely because they lacked the metacognitive tools to assess themselves accurately.

Those who actually train their thinking usually don’t become more arrogant. They become more precise — and more humble.
They begin to notice suggestibility, emotional triggers, cognitive bias, and how easily the brain produces “logical explanations” for decisions that were made emotionally first.

People who develop independent thinking are often more aware of their own suggestibility, biases, emotional vulnerability, and other forms of intellectual imperfection.

This does not mean the 15–20% are blind to the inertia of the majority or unaware of their differences.

That awareness can bring advantages — but it can also bring horror and disgust.

Among my clients, I’ve seen people go through deep existential crises rooted in the collapse of hope for a world where common sense and goodness are foundational values that will eventually prevail.

But who am I to judge?
I place myself in that 15–20%.

And still, I keep believing that the drive toward growth, mutual support, the wish to create safer environments, love, and kindness are built-in mechanisms of evolution.

Is that rational?

What do you think?

Do you consider yourself part of the 15–20% — or a different category?

2) Facebook Post (Engaging, ready to publish)
80% of people don’t really think — but are sure they’re surrounded by idiots.

Most people are confident in their “independent thinking.”
Most people also believe their conclusions are “logical.”

But here’s the uncomfortable part: many of our decisions are driven less by logic and more by emotional triggers, social influence, and authority cues.

That’s why the Dunning–Kruger effect is so relevant:
the less developed someone’s skill in a domain, the harder it is for them to accurately evaluate their own competence.

Real thinking practice usually doesn’t make people louder.
It makes them more accurate, more self-aware, and often more humble.

You start seeing:

how suggestible the mind is,

how bias shapes perception,

how the brain “explains” decisions after the fact.

I still believe growth, mutual support, kindness, and building safe environments are not weakness — they are part of human evolution.

Is that rational?

Question for you:
Do you think you belong to the “thinking minority”?
And by what criteria do you test yourself?