Psychology: This is the age at which our self-confidence is greatest – according to a long-term study

psychology
Long-term study shows: This is the age at which your self-confidence is greatest

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Happy with your confidence? Perfect! You may not even have reached your climax …

Developing self-confidence – a task that probably accompanies most people for a loooong time in their lives. One day you think “yeah, I’m slowly feeling comfortable with myself and solidified” and the next you wake up as if by magic with a bad body image or get nasty criticism, a rejection or a failure Thrown track. It is a difficult task that we humans have started from wherever! But with the ability to think and be creative comes the urge to doubt and question yourself …

The beautiful and comforting: With age and experience, most people automatically develop more and more self-confidence. So we have every reason to be happy that we are getting older and more adult, because self-confidently it is much happier to live!

This is how the confidence curve works

Researchers at the University of Bern have investigated exactly how self-confidence develops over the course of our lives. In addition they have Data from around 165,000 people evaluated, from a total of 191 different scientific articles that dealt with the topic of self-confidence, i.e. the Confidence in your own decisions and abilities. The long-term studies in which the data were collected included people between the ages of four and 94 years.

Based on their evaluation, the Swiss scientists were able to sketch a curve for human self-confidence that typically looks like this:

  • From childhood to puberty, self-confidence (logically from 0) initially rises largely constantly.
  • During puberty (between about eleven and 17 years of age) the curve stagnates – no increase, but also no decrease.
  • Afterwards (from 17/18 onwards) self-confidence rises sharply again, just as steeply as in childhood.
  • From around 30 the increase in self-confidence slows down, the curve continues to rise, but less steeply.
  • From around the age of 50, the curve becomes even flatter – self-confidence now increases slightly or not at all.
  • At 70, we can again expect a kink in our self-confidence curve: From then on, the self-confidence of the average person decreases slightly for the first time.
  • From 90 onwards, self-confidence goes downhill rapidly on average.

So our confidence is usually greatest when we’re between 50 and 70! In this phase of life we ​​are most stable, we know best who we are, what we can do and what we need.

But does that mean we just have to (or can) wait until we’re 50 and the identity issue is resolved? Of course not! Of course, we can (and should!) Do everything in our youth to develop a healthy and stable self-confidence. After all, we not only depend on experience for this, but can also do a lot through our attitude and attitude. What exactly? For example, questioning our self-doubts, exposing negative thought patterns and habits, regularly demonstrating our strengths – and making peace with our weaknesses! (We have put together more tips for you in our article Learning to love yourself.)

Video tip: 7 signs you don’t love yourself enough


Signs that you don't love yourself: A young woman is hiding under her sweater

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Brigitte