Sometimes, it's not enough just to tell someone that they're a good person and that they should believe in themselves. Sometimes, if you want someone to honestly believe in themselves, you have to be just a tiny bit on the clandestine side.
Enacted by desperate family members, well-meaning friends, Trickster Mentors, unscrupulous employers and other unconventional figures, schemes like this can take many forms: for those who need to feel brave or capable, it may involve Engineered Heroics; for loners who doubt their desirability, it might involve setting them up with a "date"; for the shy and retiring, there might be an indirect attempt to Teach Him Anger. There may even be a Magic Feather involved.
In fiction, the overwhelming majority of these attempts end in success, barring the odd Epic Fail... but don't be surprised if the target of the scheme gets wind of it and feels devalued in the process.
Make no mistake: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. It most likely won't end the way you think it will.
Not to be confused with a Confidence Trick. Contrast Confidence Sabotage. While The Con is short for "confidence scheme" a Con Man is usually more malicious in intent.
Examples
open/close all folders
Anime and Manga
- One episode of Pokémon: The Original Series sees Ash and friends teaming up with Team Rocket to deliberately lose Pokémon battles in order to boost the confidence of a weak and scrawny Paras so that it can evolve more quickly into Parasect.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War features a more long term version where Kaguya spends several months encouraging Ishigami to pursue his crush Tsubame (who even he admits is completely out of his league) because she knows from personal experience just how powerful of a motivator love can be for self improvement. It ultimately works, though he still doesn't get together with Tsubame due to circumstances beyond his control.
Comic Books
- In Dr. Blink: Superhero Shrink, Dr. Blink climbs out on his window ledge so Major Amazing will rescue him and break his Death Seeker ennui. It... doesn't go as planned.
- One arc of Teen Titans sees the Titans battling a team of Psycho Rangers led by Deathstroke. The Titans all assume that he's attacking them in order to recapture his kids, Jericho and Ravager. The ending reveals the opposite; he set the whole thing up so that the Titans would rally around his kids, as Rose up to that point was still suspected of being The Mole.
- Played very darkly in V for Vendetta: in Book 2, Evey is arrested and interrogated by the Norsefire regime for her connection to V, subjected to torture, humiliation and the threat of death. Her only solace is a note left by a former inmate of the prison, which eventually inspires Evey to refuse her final chance to confess, willingly accepting execution. However, it then turns out that the "prison" was just part of the Shadow Gallery, and V was torturing her all along: having seen her afraid of rebelling against Norsefire, he wanted to free her from her fear - but also from the happiness she found in her civilian life, and everything else that would prevent her from embracing true freedom.
- In one of the storylines of Whatever Happened to The Caped Crusader?, Alfred Pennyworth faked Batman's entire rogue's gallery: realizing that Bruce Wayne was floundering in his efforts to play at fighting crime, the butler convinced some of his old friends from his time on the stage to pretend to be villains, all so he could keep Bruce's self-esteem afloat and his demons at bay. He even went so far as to become the Joker in order to give Batman a real nemesis to fight. This backfires twice over: one of the actors ends up Lost in Character and becomes the Riddler for real; then Bruce finds out about Alfred's fakery, eventually leading to a confrontation that ends in Batman being shot dead by the Riddler. However, this is one possible iteration of Batman's death, with many different versions being told throughout the Caped Crusader's funeral.
Films — Live-Action
- Played with in Back to the Future: Marty concocts a scheme to pretend to take advantage of Lorraine so George can pull a fake rescue and kiss her (not to boost George's confidence per se, but to make them fall in love and eventually become Marty's parents). However, Biff throws a Spanner in the Works by having his goons lock Marty in a car trunk and forcing himself onto Lorraine. George finally stands up to Biff and knocks him out, and Lorraine falls for him for his courage - instead of feeling sorry for George as she did in the original timeline. When Marty returns to 1985, he finds George has grown into a self-confident man and improved their whole family's life.
- Combined with Fake Assisted Suicide in M*A*S*H: Walter "Painless Pole" Waldowski suffers a case of impotence and becomes suicidal in the belief that he's a latent homosexual. Hawkeye and the other Swampmen "assist" by giving him an elaborate last supper complete with musical accompaniment, even having Father Mulcahy perform the Last Rites, before giving him a suicide pill. In reality, the pill is just a sedative... and when Painless wakes up, he's in bed with a willing nurse. Next morning, Painless is in high spirits again, his confidence restored.
Literature
- In Carrie and its adaptations, Sue Snell decides to make up for bullying Carrie White by encouraging Tommy Ross to invite her out to the prom, hoping that it'll bring the isolated girl out of her shell (a goal stated out loud to a skeptical Miss Collins in the 1976 movie). This actually appears to work for a while, with Carrie blossoming in confidence, standing up to her abusive mother, genuinely getting along with Tommy, and even flourishing socially for a time... and then Chris Hargensen sabotages the whole thing by dumping a bucket of pig's blood on Carrie right in the middle of the prom. Consumed by her inner demons, Carrie turns her burgeoning telekinetic powers on first the school and then the town of Chamberlain as a whole. In the aftermath, Sue's scheme looks so suspicious that several conspiracy theories insist that she and Chris were in cahoots all along, leaving Sue lumbered with the lion's share of blame for the massacre.
- In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry fakes using his bottle of felix felicis on Ron before a Quidditch match. Ron has severe confidence issues in his ability to be a Keeper, despite backstopping Gryffindor to a Quidditch Cup win the previous year. With a little unwitting help from Hermione, who thinks Harry didn't fake the felix felicis use, not to mention some strange coincidences before the match, Ron eventually also buys in, believing Harry has given him the luck he so desperately needs, and this placebo enables him to keep Slytherin from scoring any goals at all, with Gryffindor winning 250-0. After the match, Harry reveals to Ron that he was able to do all of it with no help from the felix felicis because he hadn't actually drunk it. While Ron ends up out of the next game, he comes back for the final match of the season, and although he allowed several goals to Ravenclaw, Gryffindor were comfortably ahead when Ginny Weasley caught the snitch to win the match 450-140.
- The first parallel universe chapter of Red Dwarf: Backwards introduces a hopelessly neurotic cadet pilot by the name of Billy-Joe Epstein, a man who could make it through flight school and start a relationship with the girl of his dreams if not for his own monumental lack of confidence. However, an officer unexpectedly picks on him at a bar one night, harassing his crush in the process - eventually provoking Billy-Joe into fighting back and kicking the officer's ass. He even manages to accidentally walk away with the officer's St Christopher medal in the process, inspiring him to take the risks he would previously have avoided. It's later revealed that the officer - one Ace Rimmer - staged the fight and deliberately lost in order to motivate Billy-Joe.
- Deconstructed in the backstory to A Song of Ice and Fire: having grown up ostracized and shamed for being born a dwarf, Tyrion Lannister was fully expected to spend his life without much in the way of romantic encounters... up until his big brother Jaime decided to arrange a situation in which Tyrion could lose his virginity and gain some much-needed confidence: he made it look as if Tyrion had managed to save a woman named Tysha from Attempted Rape, earning him some Rescue Sex in the process. Unfortunately, Tyrion got a little more infatuated with Tysha than expected, even marrying her in a secret ceremony; eventually, Tywin Lannister himself found out, annulled the marriage and forced Jaime to admit that the woman had been a prostitute all along. Then, Tywin went the extra mile to break Tyrion's obsession by having Tysha raped by every man in his garrison (each man paying) and forcing Tyrion to join in. As a result, Tyrion grew up to become a sharp-tongued, manipulative Anti-Hero with an alcoholic streak and a fondness for prostitutes, fully convinced that nobody would ever love him unless he paid first. Except it's eventually revealed that Jaime was forced to lie: Tysha wasn't a whore at all, just a poor girl who'd genuinely fallen in love with Tyrion over the course of their time together. Tyrion doesn't take this revelation well.
Live-Action TV
- In season four of Breaking Bad, Jesse Pinkman spends the first few episodes slowly going to pieces over being forced to murder Gale, to the point that he's become a liability to Gus Fring's organization. In the episode "Shotgun," he finds himself unexpectedly dragged along on one of Mike's pickup missions, standing guard while his new boss retrieves money from local dead drops; Jesse finds this pretty boring, right up until gunman approach the car while Mike is collecting money, forcing the new bodyguard to take action in order to save both him and Mike. Later, once the congratulations are over and done with, Mike speaks to Gus in private - whereupon it turns out that Gus staged the whole thing, both to test Jesse's suitability for his new role and to reinvigorate his confidence... with the understanding that the gunmen would have killed Jesse if he hadn't been up to the task.
- Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide: In "Shyness and Nicknames", Cookie hosts a seminar to help other students overcome their shyness. Said meetings consist of him forcing the participants to take place in ridiculously dangerous or humiliating stunts. After enduring enough abuse, the students finally work up the courage to stand up for themselves and tell Cookie off, who delightedly proclaims that his project has been a success.
- The Red Dwarf episode "Thanks For The Memory" features Lister, after hearing Rimmer drunkenly confess to feeling totally unloved, deciding to give him a new lease on "life" by secretly implanting him with the memories of a girlfriend - specifically Lister's old flame, Lisa Yates. Rimmer experiences newfound joi de vivre as a result, gains a little genuine self-esteem, and even seems a bit more self-aware about the relationship than Lister was. However, Rimmer soon finds Lister's old collection of love letters and the scheme is revealed; feeling even worse now, Rimmer asks for the incident to be erased from the memory of everyone onboard... only for a trail of clues to lead the crew to remember everything.
- It's eventually revealed that Vanya of The Umbrella Academy has been the target of one of these schemes. Lacking in self-esteem from a comparatively early age due to being The Team Normal of her adoptive family, Vanya is normally a classic Shrinking Violet... up until her boyfriend Leonard steals her medication. Without mood-stabilizing drugs, she becomes more openly emotional, and thanks to Leonard's friendship, she begins to gain self-confidence; finally, she's coaxed into auditioning for First Chair of her orchestra's violin section - and wins hands-down. However, Leonard isn't doing this out of the goodness of his heart, and definitely not because he actually likes Vanya: he's aware that Vanya has powers of her own, normally kept suppressed by her medication, and by spurring her into action, posing as her boyfriend, murdering the previous First Chair and even arranging a mugging to prompt her into using her powers in self-defence, he hopes to eventually turn her against the rest of the Umbrella Academy...
Video Games
- During Destroy All Humans! 2, one of the missions for the cult requires Crypto to get the "The Freak" to draw up some posters that can help attract more potential followers. Unfortunately, the Freak is feeling really down about his art and believes that nobody likes it, forcing an exasperated Crypto to convince him otherwise by taking him on a tour of the murals he's painted across Bay City. For this mission to succeed, Crypto has to use his psychic powers to make the nearby hippies dance and rave in joy whenever the Freak examines a mural until the little self-confidence meter fills out.
- In I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, the games that AM has arranged for the five main characters are unwinnable scenarios designed to cruelly jab at the many weaknesses, fears and regrets they've accumulated over the course of their lives. However, once the other two supercomputers access the games, they secretly rearrange things so that the players can achieve catharsis: in particular, Gorrister is able to forgive himself, Ellen conquers her fears, and Benny finally becomes the knight in shining armour he always wanted to be. All of this is arranged so that the two supercomputers can eventually pit the five against AM himself and defeat him. And so they can seize control of Earth.
- Fallout 4: One of the sidequests in the game - appropriately named "Confidence Man" - sees the Sole Survivor team up with Vadim Bobrov, the bartender of the Dugout Inn in Diamond City, to help local DJ Travis gain confidence. Methods used include as helping him win a bar fight and convincing a waitress he's interested in to spend time with him; the quest eventually concludes with Travis helping to rescue Vadim from the raiders - and admitting that his experiences have really helped develop his self-confidence. From then on, his radio broadcasts are delivered in a much more relaxed style.
- Played for horror in issue 10 of The Secret World: here, the mission "A Nightmare In The Dream Palace" examines the past of the man who unleashed the Filth on Tokyo, a Shrinking Violet by the name of John Copley. He joined the Fear Nothing Foundation in the hope of finding friends, and the cult accordingly made him feel as welcome as possible in order to exploit him better - even setting him up with a "girlfriend" in the form of Naonomi Tanaka. When Morninglight bigwig Che Garcia Hansen arrived in Tokyo on business, John was tasked with escorting him around Kaidan District, totally unaware that Che was actually encouraging him to come out of his shell and indulge in the increasingly debauched nightlife until - under the influence of drugs - he witnessed the Dreamers. All of this and more was arranged just so John could be moulded into a suicide-bomber in the cult's Filth-attack. However, John didn't die when he detonated the Filth-bomb, instead transcending physical reality and becoming the Black Signal, an altogether more confident and nightmarish entity.
- In Undertale, Alphys introduces herself as an ally of the human, helping him out in Hotland by offering advice and tools and hacking away obstacles and traps. Ultimately, however, Mettaton reveals this trope as her scheme: she arranged him to interpose himself as an obstacle on the human's path, rearming traps and recalibrating puzzles and ultimately fighting them as a boss, all so that she could "help" them out and feel like she was herself an important asset in their heroic adventure.
Web Comics
- Our Little Adventure: The Sugar Bowl city of Starlight Point hires illusionists to "ego stroke the populace into being nicer", like pretending
to be the fan club for likely adventurers.
Western Animation
- American Dad!: Subverted in "Bully for Steve". Stan realizes his son is insecure to the point of being childish and starts tormenting him in the hopes of toughening him up. The plan ultimately fails, as the boy refuses to change his behavior and instead hires Stan's old bully to beat his father up.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- In the Christmas Special "Best Gift Ever", Discord convinces Rainbow Dash to get Fluttershy a rare rodent named "Winterchilla" as a gift. This is revealed to be a scheme on Discord's behalf: the rodent turns into a rampaging giant named "Winterzilla" by night, and only Fluttershy can stop it with her superior animal handling skills. Discord's reasoning is that by stopping the Winterzilla, Fluttershy can feel important and appreciated by her friends.
- Season 9's main story arc has an extremely elaborate one. Discord disguises himself as Grogar and recruits Equestria's most evil villains to plot against Twilight Sparkle, so that a victory against them gives Twilight the confidence she needs to become the ruler of Equestria. It backfires due to the villains backstabbing Grogar/Discord and nearly destroying Equestria.
- In one episode of Recess, Vince loses his drive at kickball after being outkicked by Ashley Q., so T.J and the others try to perk him back up using a Hyper-Destructive Bouncing Ball made from a rubbery substance Gretchen had invented. When Vince makes a kick into space, the others begin to wonder if it was such a good plan, as it might set Vince up for an even bigger fall. It then turns out that Gus never got the chance to switch out balls do to the other one disappearing, meaning that Vince had kicked a regular kickball into orbit. The other ball had been confiscated by Ms. Finster, who ended up causing it to bounce all around the ball shack when she tried to toss it onto a shelf.
- Star Trek: Lower Decks: In "Envoys", Mariner does this for Boimler to help him get his confidence back. She pretends to not recognize a Ferengi or that he was trying to lead them into an obvious trap to mug them, so that Boimler can point it out to her, save them, and snap out of his Heroic BSoD. The end of the episode reveals that she is actually friends with the Ferengi and had set the whole thing up with him.
- Steven Universe: In "The Test", the Gems give Steven a test of skill that's secretly been rigged so that it's actually impossible to fail in order to boost Steven's confidence in himself. Steven is less than amused when he figures this out, and feels like the Gems don't trust him enough to actually challenge him. Then he spies on the Gems, seeing they need a boost in confidence as much as he does, and decides to pretend it worked perfectly.
