“The lie has already traveled half the world before the truth can set foot.” This is a famous saying. But the more accurate version would be: “A full of oneself Said A lie has already traveled half the world before the truth can reach its feet.
Because basically, we humans are far more likely to accept and trust information given to us with confidence. By a confident person, or by a source using confident language, etc.
And as the modern world has shown us time and time again, this regularly leads to undesirable consequences.
It is an established phenomenon that humans tend to trust confident people more than untrustworthy people. The ‘confidence heuristic’ states that when two (or more) people are involved in a decision-making process where they know different things, arguments expressed in confidence are believed to convey better information, that sets the decision.
Why would this trend come? Well, humans are hypersocial, and over the course of our evolutionary development, most of our information about the world has come from our tribe, that is, from other people.
Therefore, if ancient humans heard someone confidently proclaiming “There’s a predator coming!”, instinctively believing them was a valuable survival trait.
Humans are also hierarchical. We have social status, and our communities often have leaders who are self-confident.
In the jungle, where danger is everywhere, the tendency to blindly believe a confident leader and immediately do what he says is another useful survival trait.
On a more personal level, much of our thinking and perception of others is ego-centered; We associate what they do and say with our experiences, because that’s usually what our brains have to work with.
If when we are confident it is for good reason, logically there must be good reason for anyone else to be confident as well.
There are caveats like reliability; A street preacher with a megaphone shouting that the world is about to end may sound more confident than a friend recommending a restaurant, but the latter will lead. excess overweight.
Similarly, Method Communication has an effect on confidence assessment. Someone may be very confident in their claims/ideas, but if they state them hurriedly or silently, we are less likely to recognize this confidence. Slow, clear speech is associated with confidence.
So, there are many reasons why we trust confident people. Now, here are some reasons why we should not do this.
Information delivered with confidence can be more persuasive, but that doesn’t mean it is CorrectEven if the convinced person really believes in it.
It is also not certain; Humans have long been capable of deceiving. It is extremely possible for some people to feign confidence, even when expressing the most inane of mistakes.
But ‘false confidence’ does not mean cheating. For one, confidence is linked to intelligence. We’ve all met someone who, despite being wrong about literally everything, confidently lectures others about how the world works.
This is the Dunning-Kruger effect, where people with less ability/experience/knowledge about something often play a more important role Excessive His/her qualification/expertise in this regard.
This is because of your ability to recognize your intellectual limits. Is necessary enough intelligence In its absence, you won’t question your (limited) understanding, so can spout ridiculous nonsense with extreme confidence.
Meanwhile, higher intelligence makes you more aware of your No Know, leads to impostor syndrome, diminishing Self-confidence. Suddenly, distrust of experts and rejection of their findings mattered more.
However, a person of perfectly normal intelligence can still be overly self-confident if he or she has had a particularly privileged existence. A rich, pampered life, especially during childhood, can mean you never have to face the consequences of being wrong.
So, you can finally believe you are not Wrong. Sometimes. Your brain never got a chance to recognize this phenomenon. So, you will present each statement with unshakable confidence, solely because it is You saying this.
This happens later in life as well. That said, much of what we understand about the world and ourselves comes through information we receive from other people.
So, even if you are legitimately successful in your field, and therefore your confidence is ‘valid’, you can still surround yourself with people who agree with you and support you, ie people who affirm you. Are Everything you say or think.
Big celebrities, who are surrounded by entire networks of people dedicated to serving them and keeping them happy, regularly develop massive egos, often leading them to say the most ridiculous things with confidence and in public. Does
It is important. We live in a highly interconnected, increasingly complex society, where myriad people and worldviews constantly overlap. So, someone who is objectively, indisputably wrong, but yet irresistibly convinced, can lead many other people to believe they are right.
Often by providing simple answers to complex modern issues, especially those that ‘confirm’ pre-existing worldviews or prejudices. This makes them more high-profile, thus more legitimate and credible, which earns them more support and followers, and so on.
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If left unchecked, it could result in individuals with no qualifications or unshakable confidence to capitalize on qualities beyond that, being put in charge of an entire country. And it won’t end well for anyone. You can be sure of that conclusion.
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