BASIC AND APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, 1991, 12(2), 145-155
Copyright © 1991, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Self-Deception and Its Relationship to
Success in Competition
Joanna E. Starek and Caroline F. Keating
Colgate University
We investigated the relationship between self-deception and success in competition. Self-deception has been associated with stress reduction, a positive
self-bias, and increased pain tolerance, all of which could enhance motivation
and performance during competitive tasks. We selected athletic competition
as a model and predicted that swimmers who successfully qualified for a
national championship would engage in more self-deception than swimmers
who did not qualify. Self-deception was measured by the Self-Deception
Questionnaire (SDQ) and by subjects' performance on a binocular-rivalry
task. For the latter measure, subjects' tendency to perceive words with neutral
rather than negative associations was construed as self-deception. As predicted, successful swimmers scored higher on the SDQ and reported fewer
negative words on the binocular-rivalry task than did unsuccessful swimmers.
The tendency to perceive words with positive rather than neutral associations
was not clearly related to competitive success, to SDQ scores, or to performance on the negative binocular-rivalry trials. Overall, the results were
consistent with the proposition that self-deception enhances motivation and
performance during competition.
Our mot iva t ion to negot i a te daily life depends on some degree of misplaced
optimism a b o ut what we are c apable of accomplishing (Taylor & B r own,
1988). Such informa t ion-proc e s s ing biases may be pa r t i cul a r ly a d v a n t ageous when compe t i t ion is involved. Dur ing athletic c omp e t i t i o n, for
example, individuals may be come anxious a b o ut their relative pe r formance
and distracted by the pain and fatigue t h at a c compani es s t r enuous physical
exertion. T h u s, athletes "psyche themselves u p" pr ior to c omp e t i t i o n. They
actively avoid forming ment al ba r r i e rs or pr ede t e rmining their p r o b a b le
