What’s good about being ‘self-deceived’—that is, an overconfident person with an exaggerated view of self-talent? Well, people like that are really good at convincing other people that they’re just as good as they believe themselves to be.
A study published in PLOS One has found that people who are self-deceived are really good at deceiving others.
As part of the research, seventy-two students had to rate their own ability and the ability of their peers on the first day of a class. Of those, 45% were under confident compared to their final mark, 40% were overconfident, and 15% were accurate.
However, the students had also predicted higher marks for those who ended up being overconfident. In other words, student who believed that they were smarter and better workers were also thought of that way by others. The task was repeated six weeks later, once the students knew each other better, but the results were the same. Overconfident people were rated as higher by others.
According to lead author Vivek Nityananda, “This can cause problems as over confident people may also be more likely to take risks. So if too many people overrate themselves and deceive others about their abilities within organizations then this could lead to disastrous consequences such as airplane crashes or financial collapses.”
Like we said: this pretty much explains Parliament.
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Photo courtesy of Charles Barilleaux.
