Word.ws English Dictionary

Downing effect

Downing effect noun: the tendency of people with a below average IQ to overestimate their IQ, and of people with an above average IQ to underestimate their IQ.

Noun

Downing effect

  1. (uncommon) The tendency of people with a below average IQ to overestimate their IQ, and of people with an above average IQ to underestimate their IQ.

Origin of Downing effect

Named after C. L. Downing, who first observed the effect.

Questions about Downing effect

What does Downing effect mean?
Downing effect means the tendency of people with a below average IQ to overestimate their IQ, and of people with an above average IQ to underestimate their IQ.
What part of speech is Downing effect?
Downing effect is a noun.

Words near Downing effect in the dictionary

  1. downiest
  2. Downieville
  3. downily
  4. downiness
  5. downing
  6. Downing effect
  7. Downing Street
  8. downing tools
  9. downings
  10. Downingtown
  11. downish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Downing effect (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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