People who belong to a higher social class are confident that they are better than others, without any real reason. But it works!
Humanity has always dreamed of building a society of equal opportunities, where people achieve success thanks to their mind and energy, and not daddy's money and connections. But no matter what we build, the poor always get poorer, and the rich get richer. And even now, when social elevators work more or less (in any case, there is no need to redeem their freedom from the landowner, as the serfs did), the majors often occupy command heights, and it is much more difficult for people from the lower classes to repeat this career path. What causes inequality? Do you think that the best starting positions for "aristocrats" are provided only by a good education, a more "nutritious" social environment and the clan way of life? But scientists believe that this is not the only problem. Overconfidence and inflated self-esteem - that's what helps people from high society to stay ahead of the "plebeians" in today's labor market.
And then I go out all in white …
A group of American scientists led by Peter Belmey, a professor at the University of Virginia, decided to experimentally test the idea that human self-esteem ("I am the salt of the earth and the center of the universe!") Is essential to preserve the class hierarchy. Psychologists conducted four studies, the largest of which included 150,949 small business owners in Mexico. The researchers used data from a company to analyze the ability of entrepreneurs who applied for money to financial institutions to repay loans. The research took place in several stages.
1. To determine the real social status of small Mexican entrepreneurs (on average, they requested a loan of $ 804 for 12 months), they were asked to indicate their income, educational level and determine their position on the social ladder in comparison with other people in Mexico.
2. The level of self-confidence was determined as follows: borrowers were asked to play a simple computer game where memory was tested. The participants were shown paired pictures one by one and had to determine whether the first and the second were the same or not. The players then had to rate on a 100-point scale how well they performed on this test compared to others.
3. And, finally, to understand how the self-perception of people corresponded to the real state of affairs, scientists compared self-esteem with the result of the game.
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The study confirmed the hypothesis of scientists: the higher the social status of the Mexican borrowers, the higher they thought of themselves. But at the same time, their results in the game were no better than others!
Employers are tempted by overconfident goonies
But the question arises, how does aplomb and belief in one's own exclusivity give competitive advantages to the children of wealthy gentlemen? The answer to this question was provided by the fourth study, which studied how shy and "ragged" citizens are perceived in the eyes of potential employers. This study involved 236 university students.
1. At the first stage, they answered the quiz questions in 15 subjects and assessed their progress in comparison with other children (this is how the level of self-confidence was measured). In addition, it determined the belonging of young people to a particular social class. Here, they took into account the annual income of the family, the level of education of the parents, and the student's subjective assessment of his position in society.
2. A week later, the guys were again invited to the laboratory to participate in an interview for a potential employer. Students were asked to submit that they are competing for the vacant position of Regional Smartphone Sales Manager at Samsung. They were tasked with showing how they would have dealt with the crisis the company got into a few years ago when Samsung's flagship model, the Gamaxy Note 7, was recalled due to problems with a fire hazardous battery. According to legend, the students held a press presentation at the height of the crisis and had to answer questions from the media. The video footage of the performances was then shown to independent experts (there were 951 of them, so that several different arbiters could evaluate one performance). They had to determine how competent, honest, sincere participants are,friendly and trustworthy. And most importantly, would they hire this or that student or not.
“We found that in the eyes of the employer, students with a higher social background appeared to be more qualified and capable,” says lead author Professor Peter Belmey. - Although the subject tests that the students passed showed that there was no real reason for this. But their higher self-esteem made them more valuable in the eyes of employers. Thus, our research has demonstrated that overconfidence in high society can provide a pathway to social gain.
Therefore, common children should be hacked to death: not only knowledge is power, and modesty is not always a virtue. It will be much more difficult to win a place in the sun without impulsiveness and beautiful show-off.
YAROSLAV KOROBATOV
