A new study found that female students achieved higher grades by being optimistic, whereas male students were scoring less by being overconfident.
According to the researchers of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), female students who were more optimistic achieved significantly higher grades than their less optimistic peers.
However, for male students, too much optimism led to overconfidence and less studying, resulting in lower grades.
“Optimism in male students can lead to overconfidence or an attitude of things will work out for the best,” Tamar Icekson, a Ph D student in in BGU’s Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management said.
“So instead of studying enough for a test, they go out the night before. For male students, optimism tempered by conscientiousness produced best results.”