Defensive pessimism

Defensive pessimism is a cognitive strategy in which an individual sets a low expectation for their performance, regardless of how well they have done in the past.

Defensive pessimists then think through specific negative events and setbacks that could adversely influence their goal pursuits.

[2] Defensive pessimism is utilized in a variety of domains, and public speaking provides a good example of the process involved in this strategy.

Defensive pessimists could alleviate their anxiety over public speaking by imagining possible obstacles such as forgetting the speech, being thirsty, or staining their shirts before the event.

The speaker could, for instance, create note cards with cues about the speech, place a cup of water on the podium to alleviate thirst, and bring a bleach pen to remove shirt stains.

Norem and Cantor (1986) investigated whether encouraging defensive pessimists, and thereby interfering with their typical negative thinking, would result in worse performances.

Synonymous with anticipation, it denotes a cognitive strategy in which people imagine possible outcomes of a future scenario.

Indeed, Norem and Burdzovic Andreas (2006) found that, compared to optimists, defensive pessimists had lower self-esteem entering college.

[9] Elliot and Church (2003) determined that people adopt defensive pessimism or self-handicapping strategies for the same reason: to deal with anxiety-provoking situations.

Self-handicapping is a cognitive strategy in which people construct obstacles to their own success to keep failure from damaging their self-esteem.

Defensive pessimists, on the other hand, were motivated to approach success and goal attainment while simultaneously avoiding the anxiety associated with performance.

In spite of their differences in motivation, strategic optimists and defensive pessimists have similar objective performance outcomes.