University researchers from Scotland and the University of California-San Diego found that whether it comes to war, business or sports, the key to success appears to be delusional self-confidence. They used a computer model to simulate the effects of different ways of dealing with conflicts, pitting strategies based on caution and accuracy against those based on overconfidence. People who relied on self-delusional overconfidence won much greater rewards than their more realistic counterparts.
- Of course “self-delusional overconfidence” can backfire… just ask Anthony Weiner, John Edwards, Charlie Sheen…