Self-Presentation Strategies, Fear of Success and Anticipation of Future Success among University and High School Students

Abstract

The backlash avoidance model (BAM) suggests women insufficiently self-promote because they fear backlash for behavior which is incongruent with traditional gender roles. Avoiding self-promoting behavior is also potentially related to associating success with negative consequences. In two studies we tested whether self-promotion and fear of success will be predictors of lower salaries and anticipation of lower chances of success in an exam. In study 1, prior to the exam they were about to take, we asked 234 students about their predictions concerning exam results and their future earnings. They also filled scales measuring their associations with success (fear of success) and tendency for self-promotion. The tested model proved that in comparison to men, women expect lower salaries in the future, anticipate lower test performance and associate success with more negative consequences. Both tendency for self-promotion and fear of success are related to anticipation of success in test performance and expectations concerning future earnings. In study 2 we repeated the procedure on a sample of younger female and male high school pupils (N = 100) to verify whether associating success with negative consequences and differences in self-promotion strategies are observable in a younger demographic. Our results show that girls and boys in high school do not differ with regard to fear of success, self-promotion or agency levels. Girls and boys anticipated to obtain similar results in math exam results, but girls expected to have higher results in language exams. Nevertheless, school pupils also differed regarding their future earnings but only in the short term. Fear of success and agency self-ratings were significant predictors of expectations concerning future earnings, but only among high school boys and with regard to earnings expected just after graduation.

Human Listeners Can Accurately Judge Strength and Height Relative to Self from Aggressive Roars and Speech

“…The observation that women were more likely to rate vocalizers as relatively stronger than were men at the same actual difference in strength is consistent with a general tendency for women to underestimate, and for men to overestimate, their skills and abilities ( Bleidorn et al., 2016 , Ehrlinger and Dunning, 2003 , Erkut, 1983 , Freund and Kasten, 2012 , Gold et al., 1980 , Kosakowska-Berezecka et al., 2017 , Syzmanowicz and Furnham, 2011 ). Of particular interest is that women correctly identified relatively weaker male vocalizers on only 25% of trials, and tended to judge similar strength male vocalizers as stronger than themselves.…”

“The Harder One Tries …”: Findings and Insights From the Application of Covert Response Pressure Assessment Technology in Three Studies of Visual Perception

“…These include rating the task difficulty of an engagement task high and downrating the confidence for their responses due to conservative self-presentation strategies, such as presenting oneself as attempting to perform at the best of their ability. Previous research has also suggested that certain participants downrate task difficulty and overstate their response confidence to come across as overachievers (Hellmann, 2016; Kosakowska-Berezecka et al., 2017).…”

“…We present a force pressure measuring device disguised as a mouse pad. The device was designed to assess physiological responses in tasks that varied in difficulty (Hellmann, 2016; Kosakowska-Berezecka et al., 2017). The device was also applied to assess the association between self-reports for response confidence and click-release time and force pressure (Hellmann, 2016; Kosakowska-Berezecka et al., 2017).…”

“…The device was designed to assess physiological responses in tasks that varied in difficulty (Hellmann, 2016; Kosakowska-Berezecka et al., 2017). The device was also applied to assess the association between self-reports for response confidence and click-release time and force pressure (Hellmann, 2016; Kosakowska-Berezecka et al., 2017). We applied strict criteria for assessing click-release time and force pressure, such as the implicit assessment of participant responses, the application of individualized z scores for force pressure assessment, the strict exclusion of outliers for high and low force pressure responses, and the exclusion of possibly unintended click-responses that were associated with a high threshold of movement-related artifacts, such as bilateral mouse movements at or higher than 60 Hz (16.67 ms; see also Methods section: Force-Pad Specifications).…”

Increasing creative self‐efficacy: Developing the confidence of biochemistry undergraduates to innovate

“…It could be that students were threatened by the creativity element of the module, and this manifested in a pessimistic score prediction, potentially also as a protective self-presentational strategy. 56,57 Nevertheless, an increased correlation between postintervention predictions and marks obtained for the intervention module (Table 3), suggest the intervention may help students link learning activities to learning outcomes and performance. Students performed better than they had expected to at the start of the semester, also supporting the intervention's effectiveness of 'coaching up' students' creative abilities.…”