Illusion of asymmetric insight

Biological Parallel

A chimpanzee observing a rival's behavior believes it understands the rival's strategy (resource competition, alliance-seeking), while assuming its own behavior remains strategically opaque. This asymmetry is adaptive: overestimating your ability to read others improves threat detection, while underestimating their ability to read you protects strategic advantage. The illusion of asymmetric insight—believing we understand others better than they understand us—descends from this ancestral arms race in social intelligence, where assuming transparency in others and opacity in self provided competitive edge.