Too little and too much self-efficacy is bad for interest

What an interesting paper! (Pun slightly intended.)  In this paper from Paul Silvia, he found experimentally that self-efficacy and interest are related on a bell-shaped curve.  Too little self-efficacy makes a task seem too daunting and uninteresting.  Too much makes the task boring.  This is important because we know that self-efficacy is among the most significant factors influencing non-majors success in learning to program.  It’s clear that there’s a sweet spot that we’re aiming for.