Confidence

Confidence is the state of being clear-headed: either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct, or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective. Confidence comes from the Latin word fidere which means "to trust". In contrast, arrogance or hubris is a state of unmerited confidence—belief lacking evidence and/or a reason. Overconfidence or presumptuousness is excessive belief in success without regard for potential failure. Confidence can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, as those without it may fail because they lack it, and those with it may succeed because they have it rather than because of an innate ability or skill. We develop a tractable method for augmenting macroeconomic models with autonomous variation in higher-order beliefs

Self-confidence is trust in oneself, one's personal judgment, ability, power, etc. One's self-confidence often increases as one satisfactorily completes particular activities. Self-confidence involves a positive belief that one can generally accomplish what one wishes to do in the future. Self-confidence is not the same as self-esteem, which is an evaluation of one's worth. Self-confidence is more specifically trust in one's ability to achieve some goal, which one meta-analysis suggested is similar to the generalization of self-efficacy. Abraham Maslow and many others have emphasized the need to distinguish between self-confidence as a generalized personality characteristic and self-confidence concerning a specific task, ability, or challenge (i.e., self-efficacy). The term "self-confidence" typically refers to a general personality trait— in contrast, "self-efficacy" is defined by psychologist Albert Bandura as a "belief in one's ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task".

Building on Bandura's concept of self-efficacy, Alex Stajkovic introduces the concept of "core confidence", which "psychologically enables, or unlocks, one’s existing potential by believing that one can handle what needs to be done". Employees who have high core confidence are more likely to accept and commit to goals, while also increasing their performance. A person can possess self-confidence in their ability to complete a specific task (self-efficacy)—e.g. cook a good meal or write a good novel—even though they may lack general self-confidence, or conversely be self-confident though they lack the self-efficacy to achieve a particular task. These two types of self-confidence are, however, correlated with each other, and for this reason, can be easily conflated.