Fear of success revisited: Introducing an ambiguous cue

One criticism of Horner's fear-of-success (FOS) research concerns the fact that she defined success (being number 1 in a medical school class) for her subjects. Two aims of the present investigation were to (a) reinstate the traditional ambiguity of the projective verbal lead: “Anne (John) has succeeded,” and (b) determine the amount of FOS imagery projected by 64 male and 79 female college students to these leads. The low incidence of FOS in this present study was attributed to the opportunity subjects were given to define success for themselves. There were no significant differences in the amount of FOS projected by men and women. School-related success was the most often cited success theme. Results were supportive of the hypothesis that FOS is situationally determined.