Do you know yourself?

Franklin was writing over 250 years ago. Surely we humans have learned strategies since then to aid selfinsight - and avoid well-known pitfalls? Most of us are familiar, for example, with the better-than-average effect, the finding that most of us rank ourselves above average at everything from driving ability to desirable personality traits (even though of course we can't all be right). So armed with this kind of knowledge, are we better placed now to view ourselves accurately? And if not, how can we get better at this - and what benefits can we expect? The following studies provide some illuminating answers.