Feeling insecure about
what one does, even when the result is good, is more common than it seems. It's
not just shyness or modesty; many people, even when faced
with objectively recognized
achievements in environments like the workplace, live with a constant feeling of inadequacy. Doubt
persists, settling in as background noise. And that inner voice of distrust, far from being silenced by evidence, can
become louder.
A study published in Nature
Communications by scientists from University College London and the
University of Copenhagen analyzed why this phenomenon occurs. Using an experimental design based on memory and perception tasks, the study
explored how self-confidence is
formed and why in certain people, particularly those with symptoms of anxiety or depression, that self-confidence fails to
consolidate, even when performance is satisfactory. The finding is compelling:
what fails is not ability, but the way
experience is interpreted.
A flaw in the
self-assessment system
we call self-confidence
is not a spontaneous intuition, but the result of a cognitive process: metacognition. This system is based on
observing and evaluating one's own thoughts, decisions, or actions based on
one's level of confidence in them.
In everyday situations, this assessment can be quite accurate. But it doesn't always work that way. In
particular, in people who present with anxiety
or depression symptoms, this ability appears impaired.
The study identified a clear
pattern: for those on this clinical
spectrum, the moments in which they feel they have done something well,
known as "local confidence,"
are not enough to build a positive view
of their overall performance. That is, even if they occasionally register
certainty about their actions, it does
not accumulate, nor does it transform into a broader conviction about their abilities.
"People with anxiety
and depression tend to display a persistent
lack of confidence, as we call it. Their
biased judgment of their own abilities can lead them to avoid new tasks, even when they are capable
of performing them," explained Sucharit
Katyal, a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Psychology at the
University of Copenhagen and lead author of the analysis, in a statement from
the institution.
This dissociation
between moments of certainty and overall perceptions of performance
suggests that there is a filter in
the way events are processed. The problem is not functioning or access to
information, but rather the way in which incoming data is transformed into beliefs about oneself. The result is a constant underestimation that doesn't
reflect what actually happened.
This means that even if someone acknowledges that they
performed a task well, that self-affirmation is lost in negative thoughts and self-doubt. Consequently, they fail
to build a positive view of
themselves and their abilities.
When internal
judgment is not enough
To test how self-confidence
is formed, the researchers designed an experiment presented in a game format. The task was to help the
inhabitants of a fictional village
called Fruitville pick fruit. Far from being a simple recreational
activity, it required participants to solve tasks that combined visual memory, pattern recognition, and
decision-making under uncertainty.
“We recruited a large number of volunteers through a web platform and measured their symptoms of anxiety and depression. We
then asked them to complete a computer
game in which they had to help the residents of Fruitville harvest fruit,” Katyal said.
In each round, they were presented with two fruit-bearing
plants and had to choose which one contained more specimens of a particular species. After making a decision, they
were asked to rate how confident they were in their choice: this constituted
their level of “local confidence.”
After several rounds, they were asked to estimate how well they felt they had
played overall, which was defined as “global
confidence.”
The game's design made it possible to accurately capture how
people construct an image of their performance
from multiple specific experiences. In those without symptoms of anxiety or
depression, this integration occurred in a relatively
aligned manner: moments of certainty accumulated and led to a positive perception of performance.
In contrast, in individuals with these conditions, this link
appeared disrupted. The times they
felt confident didn't carry enough weight in their final evaluation. The
overall view was dominated by doubts,
even when the number of correct answers was high. "This indicates the need
for interventions that specifically address metacognitive distortions in people with anxiety and
depression," the expert stated.
What's remarkable is that this phenomenon held true even
when objective performance was
equivalent between groups. That is, there isn't a real difference in
ability, but rather in how it's interpreted. Confidence, in these cases, doesn't reflect success, but is shaped
by an internal bias that minimizes
achievements and amplifies uncertainties.
The confidence that
comes from outside
Faced with this situation, the researchers wondered if it
was possible to intervene in this
process. To do so, they introduced an additional variable: external feedback. In some blocks of
the experiment, participants received more positive
feedback when they got it right from an "auditor" programmed into
the game, while in others, negative feedback predominated. The goal was to
measure whether external judgment could
correct the tendency to underestimate performance.
The results were revealing. Even in people with high levels of insecurity, explicit positive feedback managed to
increase their overall confidence. Interestingly, this effect did not depend on
the individual feeling confident, but on someone
else pointing out that they had done it correctly. In these cases, the
overall perception improved, and this change persisted in subsequent blocks
without feedback.
“It's actually effective for these persistently insecure people to focus more on their successes and
less on their internal insecurities. This emphasizes the importance of positive feedback. Some people need
help taking their own judgments with a grain of salt; otherwise, they'll simply
maintain a distorted and negative view of their own abilities,” Katyal said.
This helps us understand something key: even if someone
struggles to trust their own judgment, that notion can change if they receive clear signals from outside. When
someone shows them that they did a task well, it carries more weight than what they think on their own. Therefore, in
situations where personal insecurity is strong, receiving specific positive feedback can be a real way to improve how a
person sees themselves. General words of encouragement aren't enough; what
makes the difference are concrete
signals that reinforce successes.
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