Free How We Know What Isn't So by Thomas Gilovich Page B

risky strategy, one in which the person merely claims that there were difficult obstacles in the path to success. This kind of self-handicapping consists simply of making excuses for possible bad performance, either before or after the fact. Although it is surely employed in all walks of life, this strategy is probably most common in areas such as sports and (undergraduate) academics in which outcomes are often unambiguous and performance can be precisely quantified. With respect to the world of sports, I trust that the dialogue that began this chapter is familiar to all. With respect to academic performance, students at many universities seem almost to be in competition for who can study the least—or claim to—and still get high grades. Indeed, there is a term, “sneaky bookers,” which refers to students who study only in the strictest privacy so that they can pretend to devote minimal effort to their courses.
    The phenomenon of self-handicapping raises several interesting questions. Real self-handicapping makes one wonder about people’s preferences for how they wish to be perceived. Is it really better to be thought of as a talented drunk than as a moderately gifted person who has at least actualized his or her potential? How did wasting four years of college by not studying develop such cachet? I am reminded of a recent interview of tennis star John McEnroe on CBS’s 60 Minutes. When asked to comment on his relative decline on the tennis circuit and the simultaneous rise of Ivan Lendl, McEnroe boasted that he was still the superior talent, but that Lendl was higher ranked “merely” because he worked harder at his craft. A curious form of self-presentation! Are we supposed to think less of Lendl because he has applied himself, and more of McEnroe because he has not? It speaks to how far perseverance and hard work have fallen in value in the current culture that such strategies of self-presentation are so commonly employed. It also makes one wonder about the future of a society that more visibly rewards beauty, glibness, and athletic prowess over determination and sustained effort. *
    Another issue raised by the phenomenon of self-handicapping is the question of who the self-handicapper is trying to fool. Artists who drink to excess might do so to prevent others from concluding that they lack sufficient talent, or they might do so to shield themselves from a similar inference. Students who do not study (or pretend not to) do not want others to think of them as dull, nor do they want to think that of themselves. At whom, then, are the attempts at self-handicapping directed? This question has been the subject of much of the research in the self-handicapping literature and thus far a definitive answer has been elusive. Many self-handicapping attempts have been shown to be clearly directed at managing the impressions of others; in contrast, definitive instances in which such strategies have been employed to fool the self have yet to be documented. 1 This does not mean, of course, that such instances do not exist, but rather that a conclusive answer to the question of why people self-handicap—to influence their own or other people’s impressions—must await the outcome of further research.
    There is yet another “why” question that is raised by the phenomenon of self-handicapping, particularly by the phenomenon of feigned self-handicaps. This question does not involve “why” in the sense of to whom the strategy is directed, but “why” in the sense of how it is that people believe such strategies to be effective, or why people continue to employ them if they are ineffective. Our excuses sometimes “work” because it can be difficult for a person to determine whether they are genuine. However, most self-handicaps seem to meet with much less success and do not have the intended effect on how one is perceived. Instead, counterfeit excuses are generally seen through and given little weight. The two tennis