Confidence (Oblivion)

Confidence is a value from 0 to 100 on NPCs in Oblivion. It is used by the AI together with Responsibility to determine what their behavior will be. Confidence has relevance in fights. The lower a character's Confidence is, the more likely he is to flee from combat. Confidence is defined as a trigger level, below which the NPC's health will drop and then he flees.

Fleeing NPCs will run to the closest guard (also a killed one). Extreme example of a low rating are deer. To depict their natural behavior, deer creatures in the game have a Confidence of 0, but Aggression of 100 and as a result, they technically enter combat with the player on sight but then immediately flee so they just appear to always run away from you.