Public and private attributions to luck as a function of social anxiety.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Whitehead, George I. III; Smith, Stephanie H.
- Source
- Journal of Social Psychology; August 1995, Vol. 135, p537-539, 3p
- Subject
- Anxiety
Self-presentation
Attribution (Social psychology)
Excuses
Fortune
Task performance
College students
United States
- Language
- ISSN
- 00224545
A study was conducted to test the hypothesis that socially anxious individuals attribute their failure less to luck and the difficulty of a task in public than in private. Data were drawn from 127 undergraduate students who completed a bogus Social Perceptiveness Scale and completed a questionnaire assessing attributions for their performance. Results partially supported the hypothesis, with socially anxious participants attributing failure less to luck in public than in private. However, no significant effects for social anxiety on the task difficulty measure were revealed.