11 Reasons Smart People Underestimate Themselves While Incompetent People Have Unshakable Confidence, According To Psychology
It's often the most incompetent people who are the most confident in their abilities.
AJR_photo / Shutterstock While truly smart and self-aware people tend to be more humble about their intellect and underestimate themselves, it’s not uncommon for incompetent people to have unshakeable confidence, often overestimating and exaggerating their abilities and skills. The Dunning-Kruger Effect, a cognitive bias where individuals lacking skills overestimate their abilities, tends to inform this pattern, leading to overconfidence, confusion, and disappointment in many social situations.
Of course, truly intelligent people have a number of experiences, habits, and behaviors that aren’t always entirely favorable, many of which also contribute to their humility about estimating their skills in everyday life. By addressing these habits, especially the less healthy ones, truly intelligent people can show up for themselves from a more secure place, building emotional intelligence and self-esteem along the way.
Here are 11 reasons smart people underestimate themselves while incompetent people have unshakable confidence, according to psychology
1. They hold themselves to unrealistic expectations
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Many highly intelligent people hold themselves to unrealistic standards and expectations for success, largely because they’ve grown up being praised for their intellect and feeling pressured to prove their worth in academic environments. According to the Harvard Business Review, being pressured into achieving and maintaining a perfectionist attitude can harm intelligent people, encouraging them to hyperfocus on a perceived standard rather than learning, growing, and accepting mistakes in the present moment.
It’s part of the reason smart people underestimate themselves while incompetent people have unshakable confidence, according to psychology, because they’ve been forced into a cycle of struggle, disappointment, and anxiety about reaching for a perceived goal.
2. They’re complex thinkers
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Intelligent people, who are innately complex and deep thinkers, tend to struggle with overthinking tendencies because they’re privy to the nuances of everyday situations and experiences. Whether it’s in the workplace or amid an argument with a partner, they struggle not to pick themselves apart and make space for all the complexities that go into solving a problem.
Of course, this tendency to think deeply about things is also what allows intelligent people to be open-minded, curious, and creative, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. So, it’s not an entirely negative trait.
While an incompetent person can agree to something, start a task, and talk about their abilities with a kind of ignorant confidence, a truly smart person underestimates themselves to account for all the unknowns and complexities they can’t ignore. Their complexities are a dual-edged sword that sometimes sabotages them in situations where they’re forced to advocate for themselves and prove their abilities.
3. They fear being wrong
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Considering they’ve often been held to high standards and unrealistic expectations for the majority of their lives, it’s not surprising that highly intelligent people fear being wrong. They’re pressured to prove themselves, sometimes to the point where they adopt self-critical tendencies and self-doubt to cope with uncertainty.
Like a study published in Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience argues, smart people worry more about everyday things and experience more anxiety about casual circumstances than their counterparts, which is part of the reason they fear being wrong, even in situations where they have the skills, mindset, and abilities to succeed.
4. They have imposter syndrome
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Even though it’s not an official diagnosis or mental illness, imposter syndrome still holds a lot of power in intelligent people, encouraging them to adopt anxiety, low self-worth, and self-doubt, even in the face of their hard work and success. People experiencing imposter syndrome, whether it’s in a corporate job or accepting an academic award, generally feel pressured by the constant need to prove themselves.
They don’t feel worthy of their accomplishments because they’ve been conditioned never to meet the unrealistic goals and standards they set for themselves. Of course, imposter syndrome is much less prevalent in incompetent individuals because they lack the self-awareness and reflection to challenge awards and achievements that bring them positive attention and validation.
5. They’re harsh self-critics
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Many extremely self-critical people are afraid of failure and hold themselves to unrealistic expectations, according to Dr. Allison Kelly, two experiences that smart people tend to grapple with regularly. They not only put themselves in a cycle of disappointment by striving for unreachable perfectionist goals, but they also compare themselves with others in a way that sparks self-doubt and negative internal thoughts.
This self-criticism is part of the reason why they also underestimate their abilities. Their inner voice is encouraging them to adopt a more incompetent identity, even if they have the skills to succeed.
6. They’re always comparing themselves to others
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According to a study from the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, competitiveness isn’t only a trait that highly intelligent people display, but it often informs their behaviors and social interactions more than the average person realizes. From promoting unrealistic standards to sparking resentment in relationships and even encouraging self-doubt in intelligent individuals, it’s one of the reasons smart people underestimate themselves, while less intelligent people have unshakable confidence.
They’re always second-guessing themselves in the face of someone else’s success or overlooking their own skills in favor of someone else’s achievement.
7. They’re less confident
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Many intelligent people struggle with confidence because they’ve never had the opportunity to truly realize the expectations and unrealistic goals that they and others have set for them. Even when they have been successful, it’s always clouded by imposter syndrome or the belief that they could be doing more.
Considering people perceive confident people to be more competent, having low self-esteem can encourage truly intelligent people to self-sabotage, even when the opposite is generally true. Incompetent people exaggerate their abilities and maintain an overconfident mentality.
8. They’re humble
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While it’s true that intellectual humility, which involves recognizing the limits of personal abilities and skills, can be beneficial for leadership and in relationships, it also encourages smart people to underestimate themselves.
Even when they’re the most competent or intelligent person in the room, their humility may encourage them to self-sabotage, letting opportunities, growth, and success be attracted to more confident, yet likely less competent, peers.
9. They seek learning opportunities
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Compared to incompetent people who focus on how they can appeal to others, gain validation, or seek praise and attention, truly intelligent people focus on how they can grow. They may subtly underestimate their own ability to gain perspective, advice, or knowledge from others, while their incompetent counterparts boast about success for the perceived social benefits.
While in some cases, staying quiet and learning from others is a superpower, it can also be a mechanism for intelligent people to self-sabotage, turning away from opportunities that they’d receive if they knew how to verbalize their skills and advocate for themselves accurately.
10. They’re emotionally aware
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Truly emotionally intelligent and socially aware people know what they don’t know. They question themselves and underestimate their abilities because they have the power to reflect on their shortcomings and flaws. While an incompetent person may rely on their overconfidence to communicate their skills and advocate for themselves rather than on actual knowledge or skills, intelligent people do the opposite.
This questioning mentality can be helpful in personal relationships and for the sake of personal development, where reflection improves self-awareness, but it can also encourage intelligent people to underestimate their benefits in favor of internal criticism, picking apart their flaws and perceived shortcomings.
11. They’re aware of their biases
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Many intelligent people who are deep thinkers and aware of the nuances of their beliefs take the time to acknowledge their biases. They know that even in situations where they’re capable of performing well or succeeding, there’s always a shortcoming, space for improvement, or a bias shadowing their confidence, encouraging them to underestimate themselves.
On the other hand, the self-doubt they face is an afterthought for many incompetent people lacking self-awareness. They’re blissfully unaware of the patterns of behavior and flaws that would hold others back.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in social relations & policy and gender studies who focuses on psychology, relationships, self-help, and human interest stories.
