We learned in class about hinsight bias, and that we are just overconfident and overjudging what we know, or think we know.
I was asking myself then, what about those people who are known to be underconfident? I am not sure if they would behave the same way in those kind of situations since they will underestimate themselves. Mrs. Perl asked us that we should guess what grade we would get in history, and depending on certain factors we would make a decision. But if one is underestimating themselves, he most likely will say a number lower than he will get and therefore will not fit with the concept of hinsight bias. Is there a concept for such a thing too, or is there something about that person who underestimates himself?(Maybe he just tries to underestimate himself so he won't be dissappointed or is it really just a pure underestimation since he does not have confidence?)
Sharon,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this post primarily because I relate to it so much. As many of you know, I have a tendency to stress, freak out, and underestimate myself very often. When Mrs. Perl asked us to estimate a grade we would get on our history test, I probably wouldn't have said a 94. If the material was really hard and I was struggling a bit, I would probably say something along the lines of "OMG I'm going to fail." I will start stressing out about it to the point where I can't even sleep. Then there are other instances when I feel fairly confident about the material, but I'm too "scared" to estimate my grade. This could be because I don't want to disappoint myself, I don't want people to hold me to that standard, or I'm just feeling down on myself. So, I feel like it's almost a mixture of not being disappointed and pure underestimation. However, the kicker is that in each instance I study hard for the test and do well (NOT ALWAYS). It's almost like this confidence problem is innate. My friend told me yesterday, "Don't stress! It's not worth it." I responded, "I KNOW but it's part of my nature." Why is it that I know it in the back of head but I can't apply it?
People who are truly under-confident probably would do poorly if they thought they were going to do poorly. They're just so miserable and nervous and scared that they might just do as poorly as they say they will, because they've convinced themselves they won't do well.
ReplyDeleteALEXA! You know you're smart you just freak out but you're not really underconfident!
Alexa! I totally agree with you on some points. Thank you for sharing, I can relate with you and you must know I understand what you mean. Mostly when you said that you don't want to dissapoint yourself. I myslef do that, I don't set standards too high so if I will do worse than I thought then I wouldn't be very dissapointed. I was the same too in most of the classes.
ReplyDeleteZahava I don't think that truely underconfidence has to do with doing poorly at all times. I agree that sometimes if you don't believe in yourself you won't succeed, but I feel like it's not always like that...