Most people believe this to be the case, but when you take management fees into account, investors are more often than not better off sticking with passive funds.

Warren Buffett famously placed a $1 million bet on the fact that the S&P500 would outperform hedge fund managers over a ten year period, and he won.

https://money.cnn.com/2018/02/24/investing/warren-buffett-annual-letter-hedge-fund-bet/index.html#:~:text=One%20decade%20ago%2C%20Warren%20Buffett,outlined%20the%20final%20tally.