The Kim Kardashian Effect - Why Being Overly Confident Pays Off

We all know one in the office. She waltzes in to the staff meeting, seemingly unperturbed about arriving several minutes late.  With her stately gait and regal posture, you’d think she was the Queen of Sheba. And yet again – by the end of the meeting, she has the CEO mesmerized – even though you’d end up doing just as hard work and she’ll garner all the praise and that prized promotion.
How does she do it?

According to psychologists at the University of Berkley in California, those who are overly confident and masters at self-promotion tend to trump those who simply get by on hard work alone. This means they are often promoted over those who may be more competent than themselves, as their bosses mistake their confidence for real talent.

But here’s the caveat. Whilst being overly confident can get you ahead, you do need to back it up. Case in point: the current star of reality television, Kim Kardashian who has amassed a multi-million dollar fortune simply by having no shame in her game. While she may be gifted in the art of self-promotion, her success is further solidified by hard graft.


It’s also possible that Kim Kardashian is successful because confidence is extremely compelling to others, says the report’s co-author Professor  Cameron Anderson. “Confident people are more likely to attract social attention than less confident people; they are more interesting to watch and listen to. So Kim Kardashian’s success could be in part due to the fact that human beings are fascinated by confident individuals, even when their confidence is unjustified.”

Professor Cameron heads up Leadership & Communication at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. I caught up with him on the eve of his research being published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 

Here’s the transcript of our chat in Q & A form; with tips on how to appear more confident in the workplace in my next piece:

MZ: Keeping your head down to the grindstone is no longer enough in the workplace, is it?
Professor Cameron: No. It’s definitely not, and I’m not sure it ever was enough.

It’s very difficult to know whether a person is talented and hard-working – much more difficult than you’d think. Talent and intelligence are hidden qualities, and unless you observe someone at work all the time, it’s difficult to know how hard he or she works. This means that individuals who are able to convey the image of talent and industriousness will have an advantage over others.  If you imagine two people who are equally talented and equally hard working, there will always be an advantage to the one who can better convey the image of being a star. Overconfident people have that ability. They can convey the image of being a star, even when they are not any more talented than anyone else.

MZ: It’s possible then for a less competent person to have the edge in being promoted over someone else simply based on his/her confidence and how they project themselves?

Professor Cameron: I think the answer is somewhat complicated. If you are talking about two people who are roughly equal in competence, but the slightly less competent projects more confidence than the other, then yes – their confidence can get them promoted over the more qualified person. But – and here’s where I’m speculating – I think if one person is far less skilled than someone else, but they are full of bravado, that might be more difficult. In other words, overconfidence does help people get ahead, but so does actual talent. I would never argue that true skills and abilities are irrelevant. They predict success as well of course. But above and beyond true skills and abilities, overconfidence matters too – even though, in many respects, it should not matter at all.

MZ: What advice would you give to someone who wants to get ahead in the workplace but is a bit of a shrinking violet?

Professor Cameron: Fight against the tendency to be a shrinking violet. It is far more difficult to succeed if you are working in complete obscurity. We have found in previous studies that someone who has all the right characteristics, but who is socially disengaged, fails to garner a positive reputation. It’s like their hard work and positive behaviors are ignored by everyone, so they get no credit for it.

MZ: Isn’t there a danger that people who engage in overt displays of confidence come across as obnoxious or as we’d say back in Britain – a bit of a twat, thereby ruining workplace relations? Or is the opposite true – they enamor others?

Professor Cameron: We have found that they enamor others. Your question brings up an important nuance to all this: Overconfident people are those who genuinely believe they are great, even when they are not. Those people, who are genuinely deluded about themselves, attain higher status and they are not seen as narcissistic or obnoxious by others. But there is another kind of person, and that is someone who comes across as narcissistic and obnoxious to others. Those people suffer from all kinds of social consequences, including ostracism and general exclusion.

MZ: What’s the most surprising conclusion of your study?

Professor Cameron: The last point relates to the most surprising finding we obtained: Overconfident people are not ‘over the top’ in their displays of confidence. They are very subtle. They don’t brag, or say things like “I am very good at this.” They simply participate more, engage with others in a more comfortable and relaxed way, and offer more opinions. It is extremely difficult to distinguish between overconfident individuals and those who are justifiably confident, because they display the same kinds of behaviors.

Let me be precise about what I mean by “overconfidence.” My colleagues and I argue that being overconfident on one dimension (e.g., intelligence) can lead the individual to be perceived more positively by others on that dimension (to be more intelligent). If I think I’m smarter than I am, I will act in ways that will convince you that I am smarter than I am. And when I’m perceived as more intelligent or competent or skilled by others, I will tend to achieve higher status.

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/crossingborders/2012/08/14/the-kim-kardashian-effect-why-being-overly-confident-pays-off/