The culture of the United States accepts, far more willingly than that of the UK, the idea of talking people up. As someone who worked in the US I went through strange reactions to this.
At first I hated it, wanting my old British realism.
Then I started to love it. How much more motivating to be told how great you are! I started to see why many Americans I knew exhibited far more confidence than we did in the UK.
Then, later, I started to revert to type. Flattery can only take you so far, and sincerity seemed a more beautifying companion. Donald, are you reading?
Wherever this braggadocio derived from, we can be confident it did not travel over on the Mayflower from members of John Robinson's congregation in Leiden. For he said of flattery:
Flattery is in all cases and persons a base sin . . . but in ministers of God's holy Word is most pernicious. How few are there so hating their vices as may not rather seek friends that cover their faults than cure them by faithful reproofs. A man needs no other flatterer than his own partial heart to infatuate him.
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