She finds this fascinating, btw. She's observed it anecdotally, too-- that her friends (mostly male) who are all STEM geeks, and most of them guys, tend to view her more self-effacing approach as a lack of ability rather than a lack of brashness/bravado-- all other things being equal, I mean, and her class rank/transcripts certainly show that if anything, she's MORE than equal. KWIM?
I think this applies across cultures too in that I find that Europeans and Far Eastern Asians (and to a lesser extent Americans) are far less likely to gauge their skills as excellent and that the ones that do are excellent. Whereas I have personally experienced (and have compared notes with colleagues that have had the same experience) offshore resources not only outright lying on their resumes but also self rating themselves much higher than they objectively turn out to be.
