Featuring: Don A. Moore, Professor and Lorraine Tyson Mitchell Chair in Leadership and Communication, Berkeley Haas
Reading self-help literature could leave you with the impression that your goal in life should be to maximize your confidence. On the other hand, research on overconfidence highlights all the ways in which people can get themselves into trouble by being too confident: deluding themselves with wishful thinking, taking too many risks, pursuing impossible goals, and wasting time on doomed ventures. Underconfidence, however, dissuades people from taking risks that would pay off and scares them away from trying things they would enjoy. Evidence highlights a promising middle way between these twin risks.
