The Daily Stat: Why the Overconfident, Even After Being Exposed, Continue to Dominate

 

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January 06, 2014 Why the Overconfident, Even After Being Exposed, Continue to Dominate Overconfidence can be dangerous, leading entrepreneurs to risk too much in new ventures and CEOs to engage in too many acquisitions of other firms, yet overconfident people continue to occupy positions of power. A team led by Jessica A. Kennedy of The Wharton School suggests why: Overconfidence engenders high status even after overconfident individuals are exposed as being less competent than they say they are. In a series of experiments, overconfident people suffered no loss of status after groups received clear, objective data about participants' true performance on a task. SOURCE: When overconfidence is revealed to others: Testing the status-enhancement theory of overconfidence

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