This psychologist's perspective reframes habits we're often told to fix.
2 'Bad Habits' Feuling Your Success
Not every bad habit is unproductive. Research suggests some can become powerful advantages when understood correctly.
By Mark Travers, Ph.D. | Last Updated:
In most professional or social settings, strength is easily identifiable. We usually spot it in people who are confident in situations that have potential for failure, or who aren't easily moved emotionally, even if they receive criticism about their performance. Bad habits, too, are easily pointed out, but instead of being understood, it is countered. Those who appear very sensitive are advised to "toughen up," or believe in themselves or, at the very least, to stop overthinking.
However, the truth is that psychological work has long indicated that the weaknesses we perceive in ourselves or others could, when properly utilized, be fairly potent tools for learning and success. The issue is not that these habits exist, but rather the fact that the purpose they serve is being misinterpreted. (Take my science-inspired Old Soul Personality Test to know if you, too, are a deep and reflective thinker.)
Two such traits, being thin-skinned and suffering from an interior monologue of unending self-doubt, are often identified as negatives. Yet, when these characteristics are observed from a psychological perspective, it becomes clear that each exemplifies a secret strength. Here's how, according to research.
1. The Habit Of Being 'Thin-Skinned'
One characteristic that carries a great deal of silent stigma is being "thin-skinned." To be thin-skinned means being especially sensitive to criticism, and it's often perceived as lacking strength or the capacity to cope under pressure. This characteristic does not go well with an environment where assertiveness and decisiveness are valued traits, because an individual who shows vulnerability to criticism there will also be perceived as less capable.
From a psychological point of view, however, being sensitive to criticism is not necessarily an emotional reaction, but a form of enhanced detection of feedback.
A 2025 study on rejection sensitivity found that some people are more attuned to the negative cues within their environment, such as tone shifts or disapproval. This negative sensitivity may be unpleasant at times, but it also gives a person early and more specific information about malperformance and misalignment.
Sensitivity to negative feedback is considered a predictor of improvement, especially in learning spaces. A 2019 study found that individuals who are more emotionally or cognitively invested in feedback are also more likely to be quick to change. They tend to change earlier, quit unreliable strategies earlier, or adjust their expectations more accurately.
This does not mean that thin-skinned people are superior because they feel more. The benefit comes from the effect of their enhanced sensitivity. Emotional discomfort essentially serves as a signal amplifier. For a highly sensitive person, emotional discomfort heightens the intensity of the attention one might draw by making a mistake, which might be rationalized and missed by other people.
Think about professions that involve iterative improvement. These would include things like writing, design, being a leader and so on. In these domains, success is rarely about getting things right immediately. It's about noticing when something isn't landing and making small but meaningful adjustments.
In this sense, people who are relatively insensitive to criticism may appear more confident, but they are also more prone to persistent errors. This is because they're more likely to continue down paths that they might already know are failing them, as they're quick to brush feedback off.
Thin-skinned people, however, will likely pay a steeper emotional toll in most situations upfront. And while feedback might sting more to them, it also buys them an important asset: access to information. This will often amount to greater self-understanding and the challenge down the line, equating to better calibration and less repetition of error.
However, sensitivity without regulation is not an asset either. Chronic sensitivity to threat can be detrimental to performance, particularly when feelings of annoyance are linked to a general assessment of oneself rather than task-related data. The benefit only kicks in when sensitivity is accompanied by the capacity for processing and moving on without fixating on the information.
In other words, the critical thing about having thin skin is not that one is constantly wounded. It's the ability to sense impact quickly. This can be a driver for learning when handled properly.
2. The Habit Of Self-Doubt
While thin skin may indicate a susceptibility to external feedback, relentless self-doubt indicates a susceptibility to internal evaluation. And nothing is more condemned or discouraged in social situations than this quality.
Confidence is often equated with competence, especially in social settings. Self-doubt, by that logic, can be interpreted as insecurity or, in worst-case scenarios, as proof of one's incompetence. Individuals who doubt the merit of their decisions are often pushed to learn to trust themselves more, listen less to the voice inside and project confidence, even when they are unsure.
A 2024 study on metacognition (the ability to evaluate one's own thinking) shows that people who regularly question their conclusions tend to be more accurate over time. This is because they remain less prone to overconfidence, while they also tend toward information-seeking, as they remain open to changing their beliefs by exposure to disconfirming information.
This is supported by neuroscientific research on error-monitoring. People who show stronger error-related neural signals are typically faster at detecting mistakes and responding correctly. These error-related signals are very tightly connected with self-critical thinking patterns, the kind that many individuals are urged to overcome.
Relentless self-doubt with a cognitive emphasis, rather than emotional fixation, preserves the tentativeness of beliefs and also avoids the dangers of premature closure. And this is all the more important in spheres where the results are necessarily uncertain or long delayed, such as science, medicine, entrepreneurial endeavors or art.
The real strength of self-doubt, then, is not that it erodes confidence. Rather, it's that it maintains epistemic humility. Those who often doubt themselves are more prone to engage in decision rehearsals, stress-testing ideas or thinking about possible failure. This implies that they would also be more receptive to correction.
This helps us make sense of a counterintuitive finding across domains, which is that high performers often report lower subjective confidence than their peers. They see more of what could go wrong, and they also notice gaps in their knowledge. Because of that, they prepare more thoroughly.
The risk, of course, is paralysis. Self-doubt becomes maladaptive when it disconnects from action. In other words, when questioning replaces engagement rather than sharpening it, it leads to a kind of atrophy. Productive self-doubt is forward-moving as it leads to checking, refining and improving. Unproductive doubt loops without resolution. The difference is not in the presence of doubt, but in its function.
Why These 'Bad Habits' Work
Taken together, thin skin and relentless self-doubt describe a common psychological profile: heightened sensitivity. One habit tunes the individual to external signals, and the other sharpens internal monitoring
It can be emotionally taxing to notice more, feel more and question more. But it is a potent psychological strength in situations that have subtle cues to respond to and consequences that are materialized after the fact.
Success, especially in knowledge-based environments, is rarely handed to those who feel the strongest. Those who are willing to feel vulnerable for as long as it takes to learn faster than everyone else are the ones who are rightfully favored.
The point is not to foster weakness or admire insecurity. Rather, it is to understand that what appears to be weakness on the surface can, with the right set of circumstances, be a tool for precision.
Self-doubt as a habit is only beneficial when your inner voice is kind. Take the science-inspired Inner Voice Archetype Test to know the personality of your inner voice.
A procrastination habit can be productive or damaging depending on its severity. Take the research-informed Procrastination Habits Test to know where you stand.