This is a quote from a NY Times article about slefhandicapping:

 

The urge goes well beyond a mere lowering of expectations, and it has more to do with protecting self-image than with psychological conflicts rooted in early development, in the Freudian sense. Recent research has helped clarify not just who is prone to self-handicapping but also its consequences — and its possible benefits.

 

 

Does anyone happen to know what exactly recent research has shown about who is prone to it? It isn't explained in the rest of the article.

 

For those who may not know what selfhandicapping is, its a method of protecting your ego and selfesteem by producing an excuse for your performance on some test, like, suppose you were to have an IQ test scheduled, so you don't sleep the night before, or you get drunk the night before just so you can say that your score was negatively impacted. That's an example, but it can be any way of concocting a reason as to why the result of the test doesn't reflect on your actual abilities.

 

Here's the NY Times article:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/health/06mind.html?_r=0

 

And here's the wiki entry:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-handicapping

Edited March 3, 201510 yr by Alfred001

What's the connection with physics?