#96: Perceptual error handicaps your success

Have you every engaged in self-handicapping? Of course you have. We all do, sometimes. It’s a way of protecting our self-esteem and public image.

We engage in self-handicapping when we introduce uncertainty into a situation by pointing out external factors that may or may not lead to poor performance or failure. Although self-handicapping cannot prevent actual failure, it can soften the blow.

We tend to use it in situations where we experience social anxiety, where the task is important such as an exam, and where we experience unexpected and unexplainable success. Of course, if the situation already has a handicap built into it, when factors that might prevent us performing well are already present, then we don’t need to engage in self-handicapping.

Research shows that men tend to engage in self-handicapping more than women do. This reminds me of how Gary Player once explained his golf handicap: “The more I practice, the luckier I get.”


I’m james@nonsenseatwork.com

Copyright: 2007 James Henry McIntosh

James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
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