Complaining about an achievement or using false modesty can make you seem insincere.
The definitive research on the topic remains a 2018 paper by psychologists at the University of North Carolina and Harvard Business School.
They identified that there are two types of humblebragger and that the most annoying kind is the complain-bragger. They say things like, “I never have time for myself because my friends want to see me all the time.”
Only marginally less annoying is the humblebragger who deploys false modesty, such as: “I don’t understand why I keep getting hit on”.
Both kinds of humblebragger are seen as less likeable and competent than more straightforward self-promoters, and the key reason is that their complaints and modesty come over as totally fake.
- Karlston and kiwidave1
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