underconfidence.

Confidence in one’s judgment, ability or expected outcome that falls below the available justification or demonstrated performance.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• underconfidence in performance
• persistent underconfidence

On the page

Underconfidence in performance persisted despite repeated success on comparable tasks.

The study distinguished persistent underconfidence from caution under genuinely uncertain conditions.

Usage notes

Primary category: psychology / character / human behavior. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: characterization, motivation analysis, behavioral comparison, qualification. Disciplines: psychology, social behavior, character writing. Commonness: uncommon.