Now here's something that's bound to agitate the nerd inside us all: Braggadocio beats being right.
At least that's what a team of Scottish and American researchers found after they simulated the effects of strategies involving degrees of confidence over a span of generations, UPI reports.
The findings, published in the journal Nature, show that overconfidence brings rewards, whereas people with unbiased, accurate perceptions usually fare worse.
Confidence is essential to achieving success in many aspects of life, the study says, including job performance and mental health, as well as sports, business and combat.
The study suggests that over time evolution has favored those with an abundance of confidence over those who are rife with insecurities.
But being bold does have its consequences. The study notes that 2008's financial crash and the 2003 invasion of Iraq are just two examples of overconfidence having gone haywire.
"The model shows that overconfidence can plausibly evolve in wide range of environments, as well as the situations in which it will fail," says Dominic Johnson, a member of the study team, made up of researchers from the University of Edinburgh and the University of California, San Diego.
How to employ overconfidence for its benefits while avoiding disasters, Johnson says, remains unanswered.
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