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psychology
You create obstacles to explain away your future failures.
Self-handicapping occurs when you intentionally place hurdles in your own path to protect your ego.
If you perform poorly after staying up all night, you can blame your lack of sleep rather than your lack of ability. This preserves your self-esteem by shifting the cause of a potential failure to an external factor.
You would rather fail because of an excuse than risk failing because of yourself.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Jones and Berglas, 1978, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
- What the check found
- The definition and the attribution to Berglas and Jones (1978) are correct in academic literature, but the provided reference material contains no mention of the study, so it cannot be verified using the provided context.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.