The saying “Fake it until you make it” may actually have scientific backing. 

New research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that overt overconfidence could give people a leg up in the social and business world.

The study found that falsely believing oneself to be better or more qualified than others has a profound effect on the way others view a person, more so even than their actual level of competence. 

At the start of a semester, researchers asked MBA students to examine and identify a list of people and events from history.  Half of the items were real and half were made up.  The measure of overconfidence was determined by how many of the made-up items students included in a list of terms they said they recognized.

After working together for a semester, the students who were measured as most overconfident had the highest social status in the group.  They also were liked the most.