This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "The Confidence Code" by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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How does confidence develop? Is confidence primarily a matter of nature or nurture?
Confidence isn’t a matter of nature versus nurture—both our biology and our environment affect us and neither will win out. While up to 50% of confidence might be determined by our genes, that doesn’t mean that any of us are doomed to be under-confident.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the role of genetics and environment in confidence development.
The Role of Genetics in Confidence Development
Psychological research points out that confidence is genetic to some extent. Behavioral geneticist Robert Plomin studied identical twins and fraternal twins and found that identical twins had more similar answers than fraternal twins on both self-assessments of their ability and their actual ability. He found that the correlation between confidence and genes could be as high as 50%, which might be even higher than the correlation between IQ and genes.
While up to 50% of confidence might be down to genetics, that doesn’t mean that confidence is a fixed trait. Certain genes related to character traits can turn on and off, thus changing our brain chemistry—and our confidence levels. Epigenetics is the study of how life experiences can change our genes and DNA. For example, identical twins often have the same DNA but have different personalities.
Interestingly, gene off-ons might be inheritable even after only a single generation. Scientists don’t know yet if women who work on their confidence can pass this to their children, but it could be possible. For example, some studies found that pregnant women who witnessed the Twin Towers attacks passed stress hormones to their babies.
Sensitivity Genes
Sensitivity genes are genes that make someone more sensitive—not more vulnerable—to their environment. This means that they’re more likely to absorb whatever influences they’re surrounded by, whether positive or negative.
For example, rhesus monkeys that had confidence-facilitating genes grew up to be non-anxious adults regardless of what kind of mother they had. Monkeys with social anxiety genes grew up to be anxious adults when they had anxious mothers and grew up to be somewhat anxious when they had average mothers. But when they had great mothers, they grew up to be more confident and healthy than the monkeys with the confidence-facilitating genes. (Research suggests monkey mothers have a larger effect than fathers.)
Sensitivity is highest in early childhood and psychologist Suomi thinks it may also be high in other key periods like menopause, labor, and puberty.
Environment and Confidence
As sensitivity studies illustrate, environment and upbringing play a key role in confidence development.
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Here's what you'll find in our full The Confidence Code summary :
- An examination of the art and science of confidence
- Why women have more trouble accessing confidence than men
- How to build confidence in yourself and others
