Know thyself: Misperceptions of actual performance undermine subjective well-being, future performance and achievement motivation

Contrary to the popular assumption that self-enhancement improves task motivation and future performance, I propose that both inflated or deflated self-assessments of performance are linked to an increased likelihood of practicing self-handicapping and having relatively poor performance in future tasks. Consistent with this proposal, I found that irrespective of the level of actual performance, compared to accurate self-assessment, both inflated and deflated self-assessments of task performance are associated with a greater tendency to (a) practice self-handicapping (Study 1: prefer to work under distraction; Study 2: withhold preparatory effort), (b) perform relatively poorly in a subsequent task (Study 3), (c) have relatively low academic achievement (Study 4), and (c) report relatively low level of subjective well-being (Study 5). I discuss these results in terms of their educational implications