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Regulating self-defensiveness: If–then plans prevent claiming and creating performance handicaps

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Abstract

Claiming or creating obstacles before performing important tasks (i.e., self-handicapping) is a costly strategy to protect the self from implications of poor outcomes. We predicted that forming an if–then plan (implementation intention) helps individuals overcome their performance-related worries and thus prevents self-handicapping behavior. In two experiments, all participants formed the goal to perform well on an upcoming task and learned the strategies to ignore worries and tell themselves “I can do it”, either in an if–then format (implementation intention) or not (control). The task was either described as an intelligence test (highly threatening) or as a perception style test (less threatening). Participants could then claim a self-handicap (report stress, Experiment 1) or behaviorally self-handicap (inadequately prepare, Experiment 2). As predicted, implementation intentions reduced claimed and behavioral self-handicapping to levels observed in the low-threat control conditions. Experiment 2 demonstrated these effects among chronic self-handicappers. Implications of these findings are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Including all participants did not change the pattern of results.

  2. One participant did not complete the performance test due to computer failure.

  3. Consistent with this interpretation, those excluded from the main analyses (M = 71.11) tended to practice less than did those retained in the analysis (M = 113.49), despite the fact that they largely were found in the no threat condition. As a result, including these participants in the analysis rendered the three-way interaction nonsignificant, p = .19.

  4. The threat × intention interaction was marginally significant among high (β = .234, t = 1.75, p = .08) but not low (β = -.157, t = 1.18, p = .24) behavioral self-handicappers.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Kevin Bell, Nadine Lages, and Kayla Nelson for their assistance with data collection. This research was supported by German Research Foundation grant DFG MC68/2-1 to Sean M. McCrea and Peter M. Gollwitzer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, 78457, Konstanz, Germany

    J. Lukas Thürmer & Peter M. Gollwitzer

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA

    Sean M. McCrea

  3. Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Peter M. Gollwitzer

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  1. J. Lukas Thürmer
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  2. Sean M. McCrea
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Correspondence to J. Lukas Thürmer.

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Thürmer, J.L., McCrea, S.M. & Gollwitzer, P.M. Regulating self-defensiveness: If–then plans prevent claiming and creating performance handicaps. Motiv Emot 37, 712–725 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-013-9352-7

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