What Average Deserves
I thought that maybe people considered themselves above-average because they couldn't quite grasp the concept of above-average. But maybe, the issue relies in that people do not grasp what average means. The word in itself has unknowingly cultivated a shroud of hopelessness around it. "Just one more in the lot", "nothing to see here", untalented, useless, mediocre, average...
Women that are not stunning are called beautiful, because they cannot stand to think that they're looks can be pleasant and pretty but not gorgeous beyond believe. Humans are all about the black and white; forgetting purposefully about the endless shades of grays. Talented individuals are called geniuses and prodigies for accomplishments they have ease in when in comparison to their peers. They're big fishes in small ponds, nothing more. They cannot be dark grays in this black and white world.
Average is all about the grays.
Average means the middle point between idiocy and genius, between untalented and genius. Yet, people supplant average with below par, because while there is a high enough numbers of failures and successes, there is an overwhelming number of middle-point individuals who don't even succeed in failing spectacularly enough to be stripped away from the herd. People are scared of being sheep.
Average means smart, and friendly, and loyal and a bunch of other nice things... good qualities are not monopolized by the individuals who do in-fact fit the bill to be called above-average. If everyone you know is quite smart, and quite nice and all those things look for the one person that's just that much more and that's probably still not above-average. The range for your investigation being so reduce in comparison to the six billion people in the world that the chances of that person truly being more than the normal population are minimal.
I also chalk this up to a quirky mechanism in our brain. See, when you're trying to prove a theory you're brain brings forth only the information that supports that theory. Once we've established that people like to disassociate themselves from the negative-connotations surrounding the idea of being average, when they're asked if they're above average their minds go: "of course!" and proceeds to support the idea with evidence. The thing is that even average people get moments of glory, just like above-average people experience failure. The idea here is that average people experience more failure than success through hard work, while the contrary is true for above-average people with less of an effort in their part.
In my homeland we have a popular saying "Cada loco con su tema". It roughly means "every weirdo with his theme". What it refers to is that everyone has something they're passionate about. Talent isn't an all-encompassing blessing that makes people prodigious in everything they do. In fact, talent tends to show itself in a particular area of a person's life. I firmly believe that everyone has a talent. That said, wouldn't anyone considered above-average in an aspect of their lives unknowingly or knowingly extend that recognition into their entire selves? Of course, this works because they wouldn't take into account that everyone else has an area in their life they're above-average in, therefore balancing each other out.
Really, it all comes down to our fear of not being worthy of love and acceptance and our fear of being forgotten. We feel that in order to deserve anything in life we have to be more. More than what, though? That is a question I struggle with myself. But above-average is as good a mark as any. Above-average may put us down in history, or the local paper or at least in people's minds... or their mouths... Or anything to make it seem like one human in six billion in a millennia of lives could leave a mark in this world.
Above-average makes us feel special and worthy, it gives credit to our innermost desire of deserving respect, deserving love, deserving good things in life. Because we naively believe that if we deserve something, we'll get it.