> If someone answers the question with a mainstream view, it’s possible that they just aren’t self-aware enough to know a view is well-held. To be self-aware means you ask questions of yourself, such as “how many other people also have this view that I think I alone hold?”

Is this really a characteristic of self awareness? Seems more like awareness of thoughts, trends, and opinions of others/society.

It's almost like the ability to answer this question perfectly, requires intimate knowledge of widely held beliefs/trends which may in turn have the opposite effect of selecting for people hyper aware of trends and others' ideas rather than those more deeply immersed in their own individual work, ideas and experience.