Effects of Fear of Success on Intrinsic Motivation, Causal Attribution, and Choice Behavior

This study examined the extent to which fear of success moderates effects of choice and task outcomes on intrinsic motivation, causal attribution, and subsequent choice behavior. Subjects worked either on puzzles of their choice or puzzles that were assigned to them and were then informed that they had performed either better or worse than the majority of other subjects. Measures of intrinsic motivation (task engagement during a free-choice period) and of attribution for performance were obtained. Subjects then indicated how much choice they wanted to have over similar tasks that they were going to perform. Finally, subjects completed a fear-of-success and a resultant achievement motivation measure. Results showed that following success, low fear-of-success subjects (in comparison to high fear-of-success subjects), showed higher intrinsic motivation, made more internal attributions, and wanted to have more choice if initially they had been given choice and less choice if initially they had been given no choice. There were no significant differences between low and high fear-of-success subjects following failure. These results were obtained for both males and females and could not be accounted for by resultant achievement motivation that was unrelated to fear of success. Implications of the construct of fear of success are discussed.