The Perils of Overconfidence: Lessons from Real-Life Experiences

Abstract

[Name] Number of words: 633 [Name] Overconfidence is a cognitive bias making people overestimate their actual ability to successfully perform a task by believing that their performance is better than that of others or excessive certainty of accuracy (Sanchez and Dunning, 2018). One example is going for an interview with surety that I will get the job but get contrary results. I thought I had prepared well and believed that the interview would be as simple as 123, having spent most of my time in the organization as an intern in the sales department, and now the sales representative position has emerged. On entering the interviewing room, I felt so empty thus responded to questions so shallowly. I left the interview room feeling that I overestimated my potentials, leading to poor preparation for the interview. Overconfidence is a concept that people commonly experience within their daily lives. A great example of this experience is when I recently spent so much time trying to locate my childhood friends’ home that I had spent significant time without visiting. I believed in my sense of direction thus found no reason to bother my friend or passers-by with questions about the right direction. It was a very long trip that ended with a disappointment after five hours of rotating within their city. I decided to get back home to avoid further shock if I called my friend whom I wanted to enjoy a surprise visit. While going back home, I saw a certain cookie shop that my friend and I frequented each time I visited him. The shop reminded me of my friends' streets and paid my friend a surprise visit. The shop changed my thinking and allowed me to think right without making assumptions. The second example is when I fully believed that sleeping would enhance my concentration during our church seminar two weeks ago. I worked the entire day and felt so exhausted that I almost lost my Saturday late-night movie. I felt the need...