Self-efficacy is a term in psychology that refers to a person’s confidence in thier ability to achieve some goal or perform some task.

It has been identified as one of the four factors of motivation.

Mismatch between self-efficacy and ability

A person’s self-efficacy and their actual ability in some domain may not match.

There are two options here:

1. Their perceived self-efficacy is lower than their ability: e.g. they lack confidence.
2. Their perceived self-efficacy is greater than their ability: e.g. they are over-confident or over-estimate their abilities.

Interestingly, the outcomes from these two options are unbalanced in effect.

In the first case, the person with lower self efficacy than ability will not attempt things because their perception of their ability (even if incorrect) will reduce their motivation.

In the second case, the person will attempt more things because their perception of their ability (even if incorrect), will make them experience more motivation.

If you play both of these out over time, the first case (low belief in one’s own abilities) keeps the person stagnant. While the second case (false belief in one’s own abilities) results in the person trying more things, repeatedly experiencing failures but learning along the way, and eventually having actually quite impressive abilities.