"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.