When exactly does self confidence cross the borderline to become arrogance?

Answer 1

Think highly of yourself, but not more highly than you ought. [Source: Biblical]

Yes, knowing my place -- in balance.

I can only answer for myself.
My self-confidence becomes arrogance when I become the final authority in my own mind. When I am no longer open to hear the 'still small voice' (that speaks very loudly, actually, if I am inclined to hear it).

There are two types of arrogance that I have discovered:
human arrogance, or what some would call, earthly and
spiritual arrogance.
>>Human arrogance, to me, is that I'm arrogant if I think I have ALL the answers for myself or for someone else.
>>Spiritual arrogance to me is that I'm arrogant if I become the FINAL authority on religion, God, the Bible, etc. And again, it also goes to me thinking that I know what is best for someone else.

To me, there's arrogance in being close-minded, if I think I'm 'better' than others, no matter how 'kind' I am towards them.

Maybe it goes to compassion, on this Q. Without compassion, I can become quite arrogant without even being aware of it. When I become too self-important in my own mind (as others have said).

I've also heard a saying that helps me: Humility is knowing my place in God and humiliation (the reverse of arrogance) is not knowing my place in God.

Thanks for an interesting Q :)

Answer 2

Confidence is more internal. It may be evident that a person has confidence - posture, demeanor, tone, etc., but that person does not need to shout it from the rooftops. A confident person generally knows where to draw the line. Arrogance, on the other hand, is more external, a look-at-me sort of behavior that most people would find irritating rather than amusing, but would not be recognized as such by the person in question. An arrogant person often does not believe there is a line that would apply to them.

Answer 3

If you're confident and someone likes you, they'll call you confident. If you're confident and someone doesn't like you (or likes you, but dislikes the fact that you're confident), they'll call you arrogant (or cocky). Your actions can be exactly the same either way, but the difference lies in the other person's perception.

Some people like other people who are confident. Some people are so insecure that they hate it when other people are confident, and that makes them dislike confident people, and label them as arrogant.

Granted, there's a difference between being a little confident and very confident. Some people might be ok with the former and dislike the latter. But there are also plenty of people who are ok with either.

Some of the other answers have suggested there are substantive differences. For example, ~{The Contessa}~ suggests that arrogant people are rude. And it's true that rude people are bad. But that has nothing to do with the difference between confidence and arrogance. Sometimes, even if someone isn't rude, other people will think they're arrogant.

Answer 4

When you put yourself over your head. Having a big head drawn from too much self-confidence turn out to become arrogance. Overbearing pride comes in play absorbing one's own greatness sense and therefore leads to arrogance. Such action is an offshoot of the self-confidence that crosses the borderline from positive manifestation to negative disclosure.

Thanks for asking. Have a great day! Good to see you back with interesting question!

Answer 5

Self confidence with humility as the salt to season it is always a victor till the end. Remember the Lord is against those who are arrogant. And arrogance (or pride) always will go before a fall. If a person is becoming arrogant, it means (s)he is inviting disaster from some angle. In psychiatry these can be one of the self-inherent flaws of the personality which will have to be worked at to be eliminated. All the best.

Answer 6

Philosophically, self-confidence is a term with pleasant connotations. It is possessed by people who know and don't show it but are prepared.

It is only during a meeting of minds (e.g. in a debate, in a question-and-answer forum) that people who have less to impart than they should that they call people with self-confidence "arrogant."

In short, there's no borderline between "self-confidence" and "arrogance" as they are like two Boolean circles overlapping, the shaded part in between representing their neutral similarity and the unshaded part to the left and right representing how people taint our words with their attitudes and prejudices.

Answer 7

I like to think of it in these terms... Confidence is gained, arrogance is taken. Experience gives us confidence, it builds us up about the decisions we have made and will make, and gives us a sense of belonging. Arrogance is the short cut to this, it's not backed up by experience and it feels unnatural, at least to those around you. Arrogance misses the finer points of life, the joy and acceptability of not knowing what will happen next and not being totally confident, and it ridicules those parts of you and those around you, rather than embracing it like confidence does.

Answer 8

Well think about the question, I mean I'm sure you've already got the answer you want in your head, but.. MY idea of when it crosses the line is this:

Someone who is self confidant is just that.. confidant it doesn't over flow into the other aspects of the life, it just comes from them in a natural progression.

When someone is arrogant they become bitter, rude.. unkind to those around them.. To have a continuous flow of ego boosting handy. Its not a natural flow, there for it must be fed constantly to remain as such..

Answer 9

In terms of how these concepts are actually lived, the important distinction is that self confidence is specific and arrogance is vague. Whereas self-confidence is a notion that one "can do" certain things (e.g. our work functions, our specific hobbies and talents, our organization in general) in ways that we can reasonably prove, arrogance is a more generalized sense of entitlement, a positive evaluation of one's self without due justification. Arrogance is marked by a distorted sense of one's importance in relation to others because it doesn't have the simple "checks and balances" of proof.

Answer 10

“Arrogance” is a term that I use very carefully. Sometimes it is my own ego that is at fault; there is jealousy when another trespasses on my pride. And, really, I’d rather celebrate other people’s talents than ask them to apologize for their gifts.

But I think the borderline is clear: it’s when *knowing* changes to *deliberate demonstration*.

For example, knowing you are intelligent, and acting accordingly (making decisions, offering opinions and occasional corrections) is self-confidence. But listing your IQ to everyone you meet is arrogance. Speaking only in twelve-syllable words is arrogance. Refusing to consider other viewpoints, refusing to acknowledge the possibility that you could be incorrect, that is *appalling* arrogance.

When I was a little girl, my Grandmother told me, “Never trust a man who constantly says, ‘I’m a good man.’ A truly good man never has the need to speak it.” :-)