What is arrogance/humility, what is bragging, is it bad, and why?

[Arch0wl]

A few things I've observed:

1. Arrogance and bragging are social taboos in white, upper middle class environments. It's especially taboo to mention your differences in ability in things people care about, like IQ scores. (This could be specific to the middle class environments I've been in, but maybe not.) They are not taboos as a cultural universal, i.e. there are some places where they are not considered bad things.

2. Arrogance is sometimes considered having a falsely high opinion of oneself, which would suggest it's only a problem if your opinion of yourself is false.

3. However, at other times arrogance is considered having a high opinion of yourself period. Perhaps some people believe everyone is equal and it's wrong to consider yourself above others because that's against equality. ("People in an IQ society for the 99th percentile are arrogant," despite that to be in such a society you'd legitimately have to score that high.)

4. Bragging can be tolerated if there is some kind of social sugar coating to make it such (humblebragging, or if it's regarded as some kind of universal accomplishment.)

Questions for discussion:

- What do you think arrogance is, first of all -- is it a false opinion of yourself? Is it a high opinion of yourself period? If you are legitimately one of the best at something as confirmed by rankings or whatever, and say you are, is this arrogance?

- Why do you think arrogance/bragging is taboo in some places but not others?

- Let's put the question in reverse: if you're one of the best at something and act humble, e.g. your behavior doesn't reflect how good you are, is this dishonest? Are you painting an inaccurate picture of yourself?