Self-handicapping: A clever strategy?

I was never really a fan of people who make excuses for themselves, I find it frustrating and disappointing. However, I have come to realize that I was being somewhat hypocritical. Self-handicapping is our attempt to control the way other people make attributions about us (Berglas & Jones, 1978). We do this by placing obstacles in our path in order to create an external attribution versus an internal one. Basically speaking, we make an excuse for our failure that (we think) does not reflect on our abilities. There are two kinds of self-handicapping: real/behavioral and feigned/self-reported. “Real” self-handicapping is when we place visible obstacles in our path to success, and “feigned” is when claim that were difficult obstacles preventing our success.

I believe I was quick to judge those who employed the strategy of real self-handicapping, while I was oblivious to (or choosing to ignore) the fact that I do sometimes dish out feigned self-handicaps myself. I know I’ve been the person that says to my friends before a test, “I’m so nervous, I didn’t study at all for this test.” When the reality is that I did study. Maybe I didn’t study as much as I had originally intended to, but nevertheless I studied until I at least felt comfortable with the material.

Now that I am aware of what I’m saying, I’m going to try and be better about my little comments. I don’t like when people make excuses for themselves, and it has been shown that people do not like it when others handicap themselves and that other people pick up on what you’re doing. Here I am trying to avoid internal attributions, but really that’s what is happening anyways. So no, self-handicapping is not a clever strategy.

Berglas, S., & Jones, E. E. (1978). Drug choice as a self-handicapping strategy in response to noncontingent success. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 405-417.