What is it about?
People often think they’re better than they really are—but why? We found that overconfidence is linked to the desire for social status. This desire becomes stronger in competitive settings, which in turn leads people to overestimate how well they perform compared to others.
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Why is it important?
Our research helps explain why overconfidence remains common, despite its known costs. By replicating and extending earlier work, we show that individuals who desire status are more likely to overestimate their performance relative to others. We also find that this status motive can be situationally activated: competitive (vs. cooperative) contexts increase the desire for status, which in turn predicts greater overconfidence. These findings support the idea that overconfidence is not just a cognitive bias, but also a socially motivated behavior—one that may be strategic and responsive to context. This has implications for understanding behavior in workplaces, leadership, and beyond.
Perspectives
This paper was especially meaningful to write. I worked on it during my PhD with close colleagues—including two of my advisors—who have long been role models in the field of judgment and decision making. I'm also deeply appreciative that JPSP offers the registered report format, and that their process was rigorous, constructive, and genuinely supportive. In a time when psychology is still addressing issues of replicability, initiatives like registered reports are invaluable. We’ve shared all data, code, and materials to make the research fully transparent and as useful as possible for others working in this area.
Lewend Mayiwar
OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Desire for status is positively associated with overconfidence: A replication and extension of study 5 in C. Anderson, Brion, et al. (2012)., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, March 2025, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/pspa0000444.
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