FILE: ARCH-NUM-006  /  STATUS: PUBLISHED

    THE NUMBERS / THE STACKS

    Self-sabotage statistics, each one read in its source

    Pick a number, open its source, and check it yourself. Every number below links to the text it came from.

    LAST CHECKED: OCTOBER 10, 2026

    Every number here was read in its source on October 8, 2026, and links to it.

    Each number below was read at source. We opened each paper on October 8, 2026. A number stayed only if it was in that text.

    Counts are the source's own. We did not round, convert or combine them. Where a figure is widely repeated and we found no study behind it, this page says so.

    Getting in your own way

    1. r = −.23

      Average link between self-handicapping and school results, across 36 field studies of 25,550 people. More of one went with less of the other.

      Academic self-handicapping and achievement: A meta-analysis. Schwinger, Wirthwein, Lemmer and Steinmayr, 2014. Journal of Educational Psychology. Open the paper

    Meaning to and doing

    1. d = 0.66

      A medium-to-large change in what people meant to do, across 47 experiments.

      Does changing behavioral intentions engender behavior change? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Webb and Sheeran, 2006. Psychological Bulletin. Open the paper

    2. d = 0.36

      The small-to-medium change in what they then did, from that same change in intention.

      Does changing behavioral intentions engender behavior change? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Webb and Sheeran, 2006. Psychological Bulletin. Open the paper

    New Year's resolutions

    1. 55%

      Share of 1066 people in a Swedish study who called their resolution a success one year on.

      A large-scale experiment on New Year's resolutions: Approach-oriented goals are more successful than avoidance-oriented goals. Oscarsson, Carlbring, Andersson and Rozental, 2020. PLoS ONE. Open the paper

    2. 58.9%

      Success rate after one year for resolutions framed as doing something, against 47.1% for stopping something.

      A large-scale experiment on New Year's resolutions: Approach-oriented goals are more successful than avoidance-oriented goals. Oscarsson, Carlbring, Andersson and Rozental, 2020. PLoS ONE. Open the paper

    3. 46%

      Share of 159 people who made a resolution and were still keeping it six months on.

      Auld lang Syne: Success predictors, change processes, and self-reported outcomes of New Year's resolvers and nonresolvers. Norcross, Mrykalo and Blagys, 2002. Journal of Clinical Psychology. Open the paper

    4. 4%

      Share of 123 comparable people who made no resolution and were still succeeding at six months.

      Auld lang Syne: Success predictors, change processes, and self-reported outcomes of New Year's resolvers and nonresolvers. Norcross, Mrykalo and Blagys, 2002. Journal of Clinical Psychology. Open the paper

    5. Seventy-seven percent

      Share of 200 resolvers in a 1988 study still keeping their pledge one week in.

      The resolution solution: Longitudinal examination of New Year's change attempts. Norcross and Vangarelli, 1988. Journal of Substance Abuse. Open the paper

    6. 19%

      Share of those 200 still keeping it two years on.

      The resolution solution: Longitudinal examination of New Year's change attempts. Norcross and Vangarelli, 1988. Journal of Substance Abuse. Open the paper

    Numbers that get repeated

    • “92% of New Year's resolutions fail”

      We could not find a study behind this figure in the records we read. The three studies above that followed resolvers give higher success rates than it implies.

    • “80% of people give up by the second Friday of January”

      We could not find a study behind this figure in the records we read.

    How we checked

    A runner opened each source on October 8, 2026, and saved what it read. A number appears here only if it sits in that saved text, word for word.

    The link beside each number opens the source, so you can check it yourself. Self-handicapping means setting up an excuse before a test. A poor result then has a reason ready.

    The pattern behind it

    Undoing a good thing just as it lands has a file here. Success Sabotage is the pattern of undoing things just as they start to work.

    The numbers above say how often plans and results part ways. They do not say why any one person steps on their own foot.

    Catch is the first move. Catch means you feel the body signal and name the pattern before it becomes the behavior.

    The body signal is what you feel in your body as the pattern starts. It might be a restless itch the week after good news.

    The free Crash Course, short lessons on your pattern, starts by naming it.

    HOW TO CITE THIS PAGE

    The Archivist Method (2026). Self-sabotage statistics, each one read in its source. The Numbers. https://thearchivistmethod.com/statistics/self-sabotage