Personal development

There are 2 types of confidence. Here’s the one that Jeff Bezos has—and why people judge you on it the most

Confidence is one of those words that we use to mean different things without even realizing it. There are two types of confidence: epistemic confidence, social confidence, and self-assuredness, both of which can be used to indicate different things in different contexts.

Individuals who embrace this type of thinking are often remarkably self-assured

They are not afraid to express uncertainty, and they can hold a crowd’s attention when they speak
Social confidence also involves how you carry yourself
Benjamin Franklin
He was brimming with social confidence, yet he paired his abundance of social confidence with an intentional lack of epistemic confidence

Being more self-assured is better than expressing certainty when it comes to the impression you make on people

In a 2012 study, university students worked together in small groups while researchers videotaped their interactions
The researchers then showed the video to a separate group of people and asked them to rate how confident and capable each of the students seemed based on how much social confidence they displayed
So the more a student participated in conversation and had a relaxed demeanor, the more competent they appeared to the viewer
By comparison, epistemic confidence hardly mattered
Another study investigated the same question using actors trained to display combinations of the two types of confidence

How to be more socially confident

Build social confidence by practicing to speak up in groups, hiring a speech coach, dressing better, improving your posture, and seeking to inspire without overpromising