Confidence is a good trait of personality, where overconfidence is the reason for the failure of many. Confidence is a very important and positive personality trait.
Confidence vs Overconfidence
The difference between confidence and overconfidence is that confidence is a positive personality trait where a person feels sure about his actions and makes the right decision. Confidence simply means believing in your capabilities to do something and having faith in yourself. On the contrary, overconfidence is a negative personality trait where a person has excessive belief in his capabilities and ignores his faults.
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Confidence refers to a positive personality trait which simply means having an adequate level of self-belief. The proper combination of ability and confidence is the main mantra of being successful in life.
Having overconfidence leads to several problems such as being irrational and too complacent, as objective reality is far from the overconfident mind’s world, which would eventually lead to failure.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of Comparison | Confidence | Overconfidence |
|---|---|---|
| Improvement | Confident people have faith in their capabilities. At the same time, they also consider that they have some flaws that can be improved. | Overconfident people have an excessive degree of faith on own capabilities that think that they are perfect and there is nothing to improve on their capabilities. |
| Success | The triumph from confidence is long-term as confident people are aware of their flaws and constantly try to improve them. | The success brought by overconfidence is short-lived as overconfident people get fascinated by the success and start to ignore their flaws. |
| Limitation | Confident people know where to stop and observe the possible caution of the situation and take actions accordingly. | Overconfident people are always full of themselves that they forget to observe the cautions of any situation and continue to take any action even if there is any risk. |
| Trouble | Confident people are always aware of their flaws and try to improve their capabilities, so they rarely make foolish judgments and take actions that lead them into trouble. | Overconfident people do not consider their limitations and take actions that lead them into trouble. |
| Patience | Confident people often show patience in verifying cautions of the situation. | Overconfident people are generally impatient for validating the situation and rely on their unwise speculations. |
What is Confidence?
Confidence is a positive personality trait where people have faith in their capabilities and meet challenges of life and tackle it successfully.
Confidence is not a fixed, innate characteristic. Social confidence can be acquired and improved by practising in social settings.
Triumph from confidence is long-term as confident people are aware of their flaws and caution of the situation and take actions accordingly.
Confident people are always aware of their flaws and try to improve their capabilities, so they rarely make foolish judgments and take actions that lead them into trouble.
What is Overconfidence?
Overconfidence refers to a negative personality trait where people’s confidence in their knowledge and judgments is higher than the accuracy of the knowledge and judgments.
In psychology, there is an actual definition of overconfidence. According to APA (American Psychology Association), overconfidence is a cognitive bias characteristic where people overestimate their actual ability to perform a task successfully.
Even the success brought by overconfidence is short-lived as overconfident people get fascinated by the success and start to ignore their flaws.
They do not consider their limitations and take actions that lead them into trouble. Overconfident people have an excessive degree of faith in their capabilities that think that they are perfect and there is nothing to improve on their capabilities.
Main Differences Between Confidence and Overconfidence
- Confident people are always aware of their flaws and try to improve their capabilities, so they rarely make foolish judgments and take actions that lead them into trouble.
- Overconfident people are generally impatient for validating the situation and rely on their unwise speculations.
- https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/117/3/871/1933029
- https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0033-295X.115.2.502
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Emma Smith holds an MA degree in English from Irvine Valley College. She has been a Journalist since 2002, writing articles on the English language, Sports, and Law. Read more about me on her bio page.
