History Main / DeliberateUnderPerformance

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/31814008/chapters/78759658 Safe]]'', a ''Franchise/MyHeroAcademia'' fic, Aizawa finds out that Izuku has been doing this since middle school because his middle school teachers berated and demeaned him and even physically abused and sexually assaulted him. They insisted he was cheating and that a quirkless kid couldn't be as smart as he was. It comes to light when Aizawa questions Izuku on his recent test scores and the kid has a [[Trauma Button panic attack]] assuming Aizawa will be the same as the other teachers. Aizawa is furious and gathers other teacher heroes and the police to go shut the place down.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'', Dash's parents encourage him to finish second in a school race, because his ability to easily finish first would give away their secret super-hero identities.

* Nate in ''ComicStrip/BigNate'' also deliberately underperforms thanks in part due to him being BrilliantButLazy. If he puts his mind to school, he can indeed be a straight "A" student - as shown in one story arc in which Nate is paired with a couple Straight "A" students to work on a project which they cannot just carry Nate. Nate of course works hard and gets an "A". He's asked why he doesn't do this ordinarily, to which Nate explains it's not very fun and he [[DoWellButNotPerfect will get rewarded more when "A"s aren't what's expected of him]].

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''

* Ayanokouji from ''Novel/ClassroomOfTheElite'' did this on all of his tests where he scored 50% to understate his intellect. He also does so during the grip strength test, only to find out that [[https://youtu.be/waiqH-yXQVM?si=vbf582jKSOqyQJu- 60.67 kg is the average strength]]... of the basketball club.

* Encouraged by the meta of ''VideoGame/CivilizationVI'': Era scores beyond the Golden Age threshold are not only wasted, the age thresholds in your next era are calculated based on your era score total. So once you hit the Golden Age threshold, it's best to hold yourself back until the world ticks over into the next era. An even more extreme example in a long game is intentionally going for a Dark Age in your penultimate era (Atomic era in the base game, Information era with the ''Gathering Storm'' DLC) to secure an even more powerful Heroic Age for the final era.

[[Comic Strips]]

* In ''VideoGame/LimbusCompany'', we have Vergil, the Red Gaze: one of the most capable individuals in the entire City, period, and of those capable individuals one of the most dangerous among ''them''. However, in his capacity as a guide for the player character and their cadre of dysfunctional explorers/mercenaries, he's about as useful as he's legally obligated to be - which is to say, pointing the group in the vague direction of their goal and then sitting on the bus waiting for them to come back.

* ''Manga/{{Saki}}'': During Saki's first game against the Mahjong Club members the club's captain Hisa quickly notices that instead of playing to win Saki was intentionally keeping her score at exactly zero, which is actually ''harder'' to do intentionally than winning.

* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic''. Sousuke Sagara and Kurz Weber did this during basic training for Mithril because neither of them trusted the organisation they had joined. However, when the other recruits get captured during an apparently routine mission, they're required to show just how good they are.

* ''LightNovel/TheIrregularAtMagicHighSchool'':

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', Dash's parents encourage him to finish second in a school race, because his ability to easily finish first would give away their secret super-hero identities.

* A common criticism of the rules mechanism in the ''Extinction Curse'' adventure anthology for Pathfinder Second Edition, which allows the players to run a travelling circus. [=PCs=] are meant to generate Anticipation points by promoting the circus, then put on the show to earn a corresponding number of Excitement points, with a critical success generated if the numbers of points exactly match. This presumably was intended to represent that the show delivered expectations but wasn't undersold, but in practice it resulted in players having their [=PCs=] deliberately sabotage their own performances if the show was going well, to avoid generating excess Excitement.