CONSTRAINTS ON EXCUSE MAKING - THE DETERRING EFFECTS OF SHYNESS AND ANTICIPATED RETEST

Although prior research has documented a pervasive egocentric bias in the self-perceptions, self-ascriptions, and behaviors of most people, shy individuals seem not to share this bias. This study examined wheth er the apparent absence of an egocentric bias among shy individuals is reflected in their excuse making following poor performance. It also examined whether anticipating a challenge to one's excuses would dissu ade even nonshy individuals from making excuses. Shy and nonshy subjec ts received either success or failure feedback on an intelligence test and then were or were not told that they would be retested. Consisten t with predictions, shy individuals refrained from making consistency- lowering excuses regardless of performance feedback and retest instruc tions. By contrast, nonshy subjects made consistency-lowering excuses after failure feedback, but only when they expected that their excuses would go unchallenged by a retest.