false confidence
Unearned self-assurance
False confidence is a sense of assurance that isn't supported by actual ability, knowledge, or circumstances.
It differs from genuine confidence, which rests on competence or experience.
Someone with false confidence may plunge ahead unaware of their limitations: His false confidence in his navigation skills got us lost for hours.
The term sometimes describes deliberately projected certainty meant to deceive others, but more often it's self-deception—believing you're more prepared or capable than you are.
- bravadoPretense of fearlessness
- hubrisRuinous excessive confidence
- overconfidenceUnjustified certainty in oneself
- arroganceExcessive self-importance
- big talkBoastful, exaggerated speech
bluster · cockiness · swagger · facade · pretense · smoke and mirrors · delusion · fool's gold · naivety · reckless · foolhardy · posturing · paper tiger · puffed-up · inflated · ego · bluff · mask
- gambling psychologygambler's fallacy, loss aversion, illusion of control, chasing losses, near miss
- Flattery Effectsego boost, vanity, overconfidence
- audacityboldness, brazenness, audacity, chutzpah, gall
- mismanagementmishandling, dysfunction, misuse, incompetence, inefficiency
- self-deceptiondenial, delusion, wishful thinking, rationalization, willful blindness
false confidenceself-awareness
Insight into one's psyche
humility · self-knowledge · modesty · self-doubt · intellectual humility
false confidenceinsecurity
Uncertainty about oneself
self-doubt · diffidence · timidity · impostor syndrome · uncertainty
false, falsely, falseness, falsify, falsification, falsified, falsifier, falsity, confident