Many researchers have duplicated the finding that women are more likely to show less confidence than men. Women are told if they want to make their mark in  any field they need to believe in themselves and show confidence like men do.[1] But that may not be best tactic to pursue.

Research showing disparity of confidence based on gender is frequently structured as follows. Men and women of a similar background or education level are given a task, followed by an inquiry of how well they did. Women typically underestimated their performance. But the average male does not correctly estimated his, either. The majority of men are over confident, assuming that they performed better than they actually did. In research based on math problems, Ernesto Reuben, a professor at Columbia Business School, found men consistently rated work about 30 percent better than their real scores.[2]

This trend also…