Self-handicapping is a defensive response to self-doubt about one's abilities to perform well on an upcoming task. It involves the creation via behavior, or claiming, of obstacles prior to the performance in order to excuse potential failure. Although past research has focused on individual-level threats to identity, self-doubt could also result from being a member of a stigmatized group. As a result, groups that experience stigmatization may report a heightened tendency to self-handicap. We specifically examined whether subjectively lower socioeconomic status (SES) associates with reports of engaging in self-handicapping behavior. Across four samples of college students, we observed consistent associations between subjective SES (but not objective SES) and self-reported tendency to behaviorally self-handicap. Controlling for aspects of susceptibility to stereotype threat (namely, disidentification with college and doubts about academic ability) statistically eliminated this association. The findings are consistent with a process whereby low subjective SES fosters self-doubt and domain disidentification, increasing the appeal of defensive behaviors like self-handicapping.