SELF-HANDICAPPING AND INTERPERSONAL TRADE-OFFS - THE EFFECTS OF CLAIMED SELF-HANDICAPS ON OBSERVERS PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS AND FEEDBACK

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.