Esteem protection or enhancement? Self-handicapping motives and attributions differ by trait self-esteem.

Four studies sought to differentiate between self-enhancement and self-protection as motivations self-handicapping. High-self-esteem participants self-handicapped to enhance success, whereas low-self-esteem participants self-handicapped to protect against the esteem-threatening implications of failure. This was supported with 2 different forms of self-handicapping and corroborated by attributional statements regarding the implications of handicaps for performance outcomes