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Overconfidence May Be a Result of Social Politeness

Posted by samzenpus on from the tell-it-like-it-is dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Joyce Ehrlinger from Florida State University has researched this very phenomenon, and has led her to present a paper called 'Polite But Not Honest: How an Absence of Negative Social Feedback Contributes to Overconfidence' at the American Psychological Association's annual conference in Orlando on Friday. Social norms, Ehrlinger says, are the reason that we are averse to giving negative feedback. Her research recreated everyday social situations in which we hold back from giving our own negative views."

4 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. Not news by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's been just about impossible to criticize the religious beliefs of anyone for decades, and it's almost impossible to curb inappropriate and in-your-face religious behaviors because of the sacrosanct rule that religion is somehow immune to interference from the secular world, and that's why religious craziness around the world is on the rise.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    1. Re:Not news by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 5, Informative
      I tend to believe rather like Thomas Jefferson, I think, on this matter.

      "I never told my own religion nor scrutinized that of another. I never attempted to make a convert, nor wished to change another's creed. I am satisfied that yours must be an excellent religion to have produced a life of such exemplary virtue and correctness. For it is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be judged." -- Thomas Jefferson

      "But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782

      (But of course we have the objection that certain "religions" have done those very things, even today. In which case we might rightly oppose them.)

      "Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear." -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787

  2. Re:spoonful of sugar by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Informative

    negative feedback is acceptable if given constructively and pleasantly

    Not always. When I was a kid, I was a real brat and a complete nuisance at school, both for my schoolmates and for teachers, and didn't realize it. School officials tried time and time again to talk to me "about my future", call my parents in to have a chat about my latest antics in a pleasant, non-hurtful, Mr. Mackey sort of way, to no avail.

    And one day, 20 kids ganged up on me and beat the shit out of me outside school. I got the message. It was one of the most important lessons of my life.

    So no, being pleasant isn't always constructive.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  3. Re:spoonful of sugar by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 5, Informative

    ... people who can't take criticism are known as artists ...

     
    ... and architects

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !