There's a fascinating study about overconfidence in medicine. It turns out that medical students aren't overconfident; they are not very good at their jobs and they know it. Doctors aren't overconfident either; they are good at their jobs and they know it. But residents tend to be the overconfident ones; they aren't really good at their jobs yet, but they think they are.
Like medical residents, teenagers are in a transitional stage. And you probably don't need research to tell you that teenagers tend to be highly egocentric. Interestingly, though, teens change as they get older; they aren't necessarily more prosocial, but they are better at understanding the perspective of others.
A new article in the journal Psychological Science investigated Changing Brains, Changing Perspectives: The Neurocognitive Development of Reciprocity. The article begins with a wonderful quote:
"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years." -- Mark Twain
