ABSTRACT
People vary greatly in the amount of confidence they have in their abilities. Some people seem to be extremely confident, whereas others appear to lack confidence in almost everything. As people progress through life, the degree of confidence they have can change; often they become more confident, especially in things they have done previously and hence learnt that they can do, often more easily than they thought they would be able to. Scientists lacking confidence tend to focus all their attention on the one area of research that they are active in; they do not have the confidence to broaden their research, let alone change fields. One of the best ways to gain confidence in scientists’ scientific abilities is to present the results of their research at a conference, either as a poster or as an oral presentation, or to publish them in a scientific journal.
