Someone told me that there is a very thin line between arrogance and self-confidence and he argues that the arrogant individual just happens to have too much self-confidence in themselves which is mis-taken as arrogance.
That sometimes, what people see as arrogance is actually just someone exuding a lot of self-confidence. That arrogance is only a matter of perception. So I asked if the thin line he refers to is actually just our perception of what we consider to be arrogant and what we consider to be someone just exuding self-confidence.
I asked if it’s possible that we may consider someone arrogant until we get to know them a bit more and then realize that they are actually just self-confident.
Self-confidence is good. I don’t know anyone that likes arrogance. For those that embrace blatant arrogance, it is either they don’t see the arrogance because they are tethered to the arrogant person in some form or they just do what we do best: Be a hypocrite and speak “ill” of the arrogant person behind their back and worship him/her when in their face.
But this post is not about hypocrisy, it is about how some of us perceive ourselves to be really good at something when in reality we suck at it or we are just as mediocre as the next person we call mediocre. It is called the Dunning-Kruger effect. I know someone who has the Dunning-Kruger bias in that they think they’re are an idiot but their level of idiocy is not even that good. Calling them an idiot is an insult to idiots!
In my dealings with our people here, I realize that we seem to have an excess of what psychologists call the illusory superiority. Illusory superiority, as the name implies, is when someone’s sense of their superiority (in terms of ability) is an illusion that does not match reality. That is, the person afflicted with an illusory superiority tends to have an opinion of their ability that does not necessarily jive with the reality.
In other words, they think too highly of their abilities! Psychologists call it a cognitive bias. Mere mortals like me just call it a jacked up sense of self! Now imagine someone that has this inflated sense of their abilities and they act arrogantly based on the illusion that they are excellent at what they do. You end up with an arrogant fool!
The arrogant fool is the one that talks and everyone looks at the person next to them wondering if they are in the wrong audience! The arrogant fool speaks and or writes as if they are world renowned or as if they are the best thing since NAWEC came into being.
The arrogant fool yells and screams for attention because in their mind, what they have to offer is far more important than what anyone else has to say. The arrogant fool thinks they are very important and are quick to make sure everyone knows who they are. Woe betide you if you do not recognize the arrogant fool when you come into contact with them. They will wait for you to acknowledge them first and if you don’t, they take your name in their little black book!
Arrogance is tolerable to some so long as the arrogant individual knows their material or are super good at what they do. But imagine the guy who suffers from illusory superiority galavanting around town or Facebook selling how smart and intelligent he/she is when the illusion is lost to them alone. They come across as an arrogant fool and no one likes an arrogant fool. I know a few arrogant fools. Do you know any arrogant fools?
