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Eric Kaufmann

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Confidence, Trust and Belief: How this underlies all we do and shapes our world

Confidence - the idea that we can perform a given action in the future, or can rely on a specific environment to be a certain way in the future - is key to how well individuals and institutions function. From sports, relationships and work, to organizations, to the macro economy and finance, to political leadership and peacebuilding, there is a common thread. Confidence builds gradually, but can crash catastrophically. To build confidence and optimism we can look to techniques develped by Bandura and the self-efficacy school, taken up in different form by behavioural economists. What do you think?

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    Debra Smith 200+

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    Jun 27 2012: Thanks Eric! This is a wonderful reminder of just why we should treat others with dignity. Undermining these qualities, can lead to unexpected and crippling consequences so even people we consider to be 'wonky' need to be faced with kindness and compassion.

  • Eric Kaufmann

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    Jun 22 2012: Fritzie

    Thanks for your astute comments. The question that emerges from your description is why some people bounce back from failure while others lose their willingness to take risks. Gertrude Stein and many other leading writers often
    endured scores of rejections, but stuck with their ideas and eventually were successful. Who knows how many other creative geniuses gave up at first base? Is this confidence something innate, something springing from a privileged social background, strong parenting, or even from religion?

    Let's also take this up a level to the economy. Can an entire economy of consumers and investors be paralyzed by fear, with no confidence in the future? Even a small amount of this thinking can lead rational investors to adjust their appraisals of the future in a pessimistic direction, telescoping underconfidence into market stagnation. We might ask the same of political regimes where people have no faith in democracy, or in clean government.

    • André Valente

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      Jun 22 2012: Sting once said in one of his songs.... Actually i heard by Alanis

      in a sky full of people, just few want to fly, and is it not crazy???
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    Fritzie Reisner 100+

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    Jun 21 2012: One idea I find useful in this regard is that whenever we jump into a situation that seems quite new and somewhat unpredictable, we can remind ourselves that we have jumped into new situations before. Moving into the unknown typically isn't new to us. We have done many things for a first time, some involving risks.
    Sometimes the experience has turned out great, enlightening, and productive and sometimes disappointing. and we have learned from both.
    More to the point, we will typically have lots of evidence behind us of new things we tried that may have been disappointing but not disastrous. From our experiences we can find our bearings as to what sorts of adventures involving uncertainty have pretty unfrightening downside risks. Having taken risks and typically coming through without seriously bad consequences should build confidence.
    Another mindset that can help is the idea that is now widespread if not dominant in much of the world that failure is not only a natural thing but a good thing. Someone I know uses the term of our living in a "post-perfect" society. The popularity of trying things and failing, retooling, and trying another version or the next thing should help anyone's fear of failure.
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