"People self-sabotage because they want to protect their self-esteem," the researchers said. "When you fail at something, it hurts — your self-esteem suffers and others' impressions of you are likely to become more negative as well." Thus, self-sabotage is a way for people to externalize the error in order to keep their ego intact. "This allows the individual to retain the belief that they are competent in a given domain, and also allows them to save face in front of others, despite poor performance"

Disturbingly, such pitiful behavior is most likely to occur when we are thinking clearly; when we're at our best, not worst. It costs a great deal of mental resources set yourself up to fail, and unfortunately this behavior has really hideous results. "Self-handicapping is a costly strategy for people to use," the researchers said, listing many harmful effects of the behavior: "failure, lack of motivation, negative mood, low self-esteem, and the potential for substance abuse as well as notable interpersonal costs." They add that such undermining is exponential, capable of sending you into a sort of unending self-sabotage trap—"where handicapping leads to lower self-esteem and higher failure beliefs, which you deal with by self-handicapping more."

jo ir taču skaidrs, ka tad, kad sniegums tāpat būs sūdīgs, nav vērts tērēt enerģiju, lai novērstu risku, ka tas varētu nebūt sūdīgs, hah.

stuck in that loop

wtf