Self-handicapping status, claimed self-handicaps and reduced practice effort following success and failure feedback

Background. Self‐handicapping involves the strategic establishment of an impediment or obstacle to success prior to a performance situation which thereby provides a convenient excuse for poor performance. Aims. The study sought to establish that relative to low trait self‐handicappers, high trait self‐handicappers exposed to failure in an intellectually evaluative situation will (a) pre‐emptively claim more handicaps, and (b) behaviourally...