Research Suggests It’s Better to Be Confident than Right

Resume Lady is a blog with posts centered around working and getting a job. However, every once and a while I will present a post that is touching on the fringes of our niche. This is an interesting little tidbit concerning confidence. Confidence is outlined with several posts featured on interviewing, building resumes and other work related material and should not be diminished in it's importance.


This happens to be scientific proof of what confidence can actually provide to a person.

For those of you that are “know-it-alls” a recent study has revealed that it’s better to be confident than right. Therefore, if you go through life with an inflated sensibility of being correct all of the time may actually benefit more than their peers that actually are right or correct all of the time. A study out of University Edinburgh and the University of California in San Diego has recently published these findings.

The scientist at these universities reviewed the effect of overconfidence in people of different generations. Evolutionary biologists have historically known that humans have a tendency to be over confident, but failed to know how this information could be useful. Men will exhibit more false confidence than women, presumably (in evolutionary provisions) because it will supposedly help them find a mate. However, some scientists believe it also is useful for establishing a pecking order or who is the alpha in the male relationship scenario. Overall the new research does establish that overconfidence will help in a variety of different settings.

Researchers work was based upon mathematical models that predicted how well overconfident, under confident and realistic people performed in different circumstances and situations. They reviewed the prospects of two people battling over a prize which could be anything from money to an attractive mate. Situations were modeled after two opponents on diverse levels of confidence and differing abilities to tell how formidable the opponent was.

The results have been published in the journal Nature and reveal overconfidence was more often the best strategy to win the prize whether or not the person was right. An interview was provided to the National Geographic  by study author Dominic Johnson, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Edinburgh. Dominic Johnson stated that as long as an uncertainty existed for the outcome of the prize or resource which was valuable compared to the costs incurred or fighting for, the best strategy was overconfidence with one exception. The exception to delivering overconfidence as the best strategy was when the conflict or competition was high and all for a fairly worthy prize, caution is better than overconfidence as a strategy.

The study also provided another insight that many people will appear overconfident when they don’t feel very confident at all. This was especially true the more difficult the situation or circumstances. In other words these individuals are bluffing. Though in general the study did discover the old saying “fortune favors the bold”.

Overconfident people should also be more willing to approach the opposite sex to find a mate because they are likely to succeed with mating and had more children than their shyer or more insecure counterparts.

pic is courtesy of the wing girl method