OBAMA’S PRESIDENCY EXPLAINED: Why High-Class People Get Away With Incompetence. “The researchers suggest that part of the answer involves what they call ‘overconfidence.’ In several experiments, they found that people who came from a higher social class were more likely to have an inflated sense of their skills — even when tests proved that they were average. This unmerited overconfidence, they found, was interpreted by strangers as competence.” Sharp-creased pants and a Harvard Law degree were enough to fool a lot of people.