F. Rhodewalt et al., SELF-HANDICAPPING AND INTERPERSONAL TRADE-OFFS - THE EFFECTS OF CLAIMED SELF-HANDICAPS ON OBSERVERS PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS AND FEEDBACK, Personality & social psychology bulletin, 21(10), 1995, pp. 1042-1050
Male subjects evaluated the performance of targets who, prior to and d
uring the performance, offered no excuse, claimed intended low effort,
claimed anxiety, or claimed drug impairment. Cross-cutting the excuse
manipulation was the publicity of the feedback; half the subjects bel
ieved their evaluations were private, and half believed they would hav
e to communicate their evaluations to the target. Subjects evaluated o
bjectively equivalent performances more negatively if they came from a
rt excuse-making target than a no-excuse target. Subjects provided les
s favorable feedback to targets claiming low effort or drug impairment
than to those citing anxiety or no excuse. Depending on the handicap
claimed observers either discounted ability (claimed low effort) or in
ferred lower ability from perceived poorer performance (claimed anxiet
y or claimed drug impairment). Implications for the interpersonal cons
equences of self-handicapping and the self-perpetuating nature of such
strategies are discussed.