Confidence is said to be the key to success. However, new psychology research reveals that there really can be too much of a good thing - overconfidence stunts intellectual development by discouraging learning and self-improvement.
After analyzing data from from three different studies, psychologists found that people who think intelligence or mental capacity is unchangeable are significantly more likely to be overconfident in their own abilities. In contrast, individuals who believe that intelligence is a changeable characteristic are less likely to be overconfident.
Despite brimming with self-assurance, overly confident individuals were also less likely than their less-confident counterparts to pursue challenges, according to the latest study.
Researchers found that overconfident people spent more time concentrating on easy parts of tasks, whereas their more level-headed peers spent less time on easy parts and more time on challenging parts of tasks.
"By focusing on aspects of the task that were easy and spending as little time as possible on more difficult parts of the task, fixed theorists felt as if they had performed very well relative to their peers," study author Joyce Ehrlinger of Washington State University said.
"In contrast, growth theorists weren't threatened by challenging parts of the task and didn't feel the need to bask in the glow of the parts that were easy. This more balanced way of completing the task left growth theorists with a better understanding of how well they did," Ehrlinger explained.
Researchers believe that the latest findings may provide valuable insight into learning, education and decision making.
"A little bit of overconfidence can be helpful but larger amounts of overconfidence can lead people to make bad decisions and to miss out on opportunities to learn," Ehrlinger explained. "Education is perhaps the best way to advance opportunity, and emerging evidence suggests that the benefits of teaching a growth mindset for improving grades are particularly strong for students in stigmatized groups based on race or gender."
"We know that students' beliefs about intelligence are very consequential in the classroom and that interventions that teach students a growth mindset lead to improvements in their grades. We also know that being overconfident keeps people from learning. You have to understand and acknowledge what you don't yet know in order to truly learn. This research suggests that part of why growth mindsets improve learning might be because they lead people to better understand what they do and what they do not know," she concluded.
The latest findings are published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
