Self-compassion and self-protection strategies: The impact of self-compassion on the use of self-handicapping and sandbagging

• It is proposed that self-compassion influences the use of self-protection strategies.
• A questionnaire-study with 173 participants was conducted.
• A negative correlation was found between self-compassion (sc) and self-handicapping.
• Also a negative correlation between sc and sandbagging was detected.
• The regression weight for sc remains significant even when controlling for self-esteem.

Self-compassion is a self-regulation strategy for countering negative self-directed feelings and emotions. High self-compassionate people treat themselves with kindness, care, and concern when facing negative life experience. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of self-compassion on the use of two self-esteem protecting strategies, self-handicapping and sandbagging. Both strategies are conducive to maintaining or enhancing one’s self-esteem by attributing failures in a way that serves as a protective mechanism to self-esteem, but the strategies must take performance loss or deterioration of social relations into account. High self-compassionate people were assumed to apply strategies associated with negative consequences less frequently, given their tendency to admit mistakes and not conceal their weaknesses. In the present study, 173 participants completed questionnaires that assessed self-compassion, self-esteem, self-handicapping, and sandbagging. Consistent with our hypotheses, negative correlations were found between self-compassion and self-handicapping as well as sandbagging. A hierarchical regression analysis also revealed that self-compassion significantly predicted the use of self-handicapping and sandbagging and confirmed that high self-compassionate people have less need to use these self-protecting strategies.