How your tools might kill your confidence
????? In 2003, researchers asked their students to write down their BEST or WORST qualities.
“It’s a graphology study,” they said.
(it wasn’t)
??
They asked some students to write with their dominant hand.
So right hand for right-handers.
And they asked other students to write with their non-dominant hand.
So left hand for right-handers.
??/??
Once they were done, the researchers asked each student to rate how confident they were about the qualities they just wrote down.
For example:
?? ???? ???????? ???? ?????????????? ????????. ??’?? 7??% ???????? ?????????? ????????.
?? ???? ?????? ???? ????????????. ??’?? ????% ???????? ?????????? ????????.
? ?? g??d ?? d??w??g. ?’? 5?% ???? ?b??? ????.
? ?? b?d ?? ???d??g ? ????. ?’? 4?% ???? ?b??? ????.
???
The researchers had a pile of self-evaluation scorecards.
Some were written “badly”; others were written correctly.
Can you guess what they found?
??
People using their dominant hand were more confident about their thoughts!
(for positive AND negative thoughts).
I find the idea that “simply” using the wrong hand can change how you perceive yourself to be… astounding.
So here is a question for you:
?? What might be the impact of your tools on how confident you are about your work?
?? Source:
Bri?ol P, Petty RE. Overt head movements and persuasion: a self-validation analysis. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2003 Jun;84(6):1123-39.
doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.84.6.1123. PMID: 12793580.
Original and probably more recent version on my Digital Garden: