Lake Wobegon effect en · NOUN
Etymology
From the fictional place Lake Wobegon in Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.
Meanings
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Illusory superiority, that is, the belief that a majority of people are or can be above average.
“It’s the Lake Wobegon effect,” said Dr. Daniel P. Sulmasy, senior author and a professor of medicine and ethics at the University of Chicago. “If you have more than 50 percent of patients saying their chances are better than average of avoiding some harm or obtaining some benefit, they are being unrealistically optimistic because you can’t say that most people are above average.”
2011 March 3, Pauline W. Chen, quoting Daniel P. Sulmasy, “When Optimism Is Unrealistic”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 10 Jun 2021:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Wobegon effects | Number=Plur | lexicographic |