And just as we understate our successes, we exaggerate our failures. One disappointment gives us all the evidence we need to support our belief that we are phonies. We assume that a single low test score reflects our overall lack of intelligence and skill.18 We overgeneralize because we grasp at anything that reinforces our secret knowledge that we are unworthy. If we succeed, we were lucky. If we fail, we were incompetent.
