The Big Fish Little Pond Effect

The frog pond effect describes how people ranked near the top of a badly performing group feel better about their performance thand about themselves. This is often also called the big fish little pond effect, where you're a big fish in a small pond. In other words, all you need to do to make yourself feel like smartest person in the room is to step into a closet full of idiots. That's more psychologically meaning than any other two differences, except dead last and second to last. It's a lot worse to be dead last than it is to be second to last, relative to being third to last, et cetera.