Washington State University researcher Joyce Ehrlinger has found that a person’s tendency to be overconfident increases if he or she thinks intelligence is fixed and unchangeable.
Such people tend to maintain their overconfidence by concentrating on the easy parts of tasks while spending as little time as possible on the hard parts of tasks, said Ehrlinger, a WSU assistant professor of psychology.
But people who hold a growth mindset—meaning they think intelligence is a changeable quality—spend more time on the challenging parts of tasks, she said. Consequently, their levels of confidence are more in line with their abilities.