Choking under pressure and gender: Evidence from professional tennis

Cohen-Zada, Danny; Krumer, Alex; Rosenboim, Mosi; Shapir, Offer Moshe

doi:10.1016/j.joep.2017.04.005

Cited by 85 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…For example, pressure is found to arise from the disadvantage of being the second mover in a particular contest (e.g., Apesteguia and Palacios-Huerta (2010) or Kocher, Lenz and Sutter (2012)). Another source of pressure is identified in intermediate standings in contests (Cohen-Zada, Krumer, Rosenboim and Shapir, 2017;Dohmen, 2008a) or the imminent importance of a certain situation (González-Díaz, Gossner and Rogers, 2012). Obviously, increased monetary incentives create pressure to perform (Hickman and Metz, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Choking under pressure – Evidence of the causal effect of audience size on performance

Böheim

Grübl

Lackner

2019

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

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We analyze performance under pressure and estimate the causal effect of audience size on the success of free throws in top-level professional basketball. We use data from the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the seasons 2007/08 through 2015/16. We exploit the exogenous variation in weather conditions on game day to establish a causal link between attendance size and performance. Our results confirm a sizeable and strong negative effect of the number of spectators on performance. Home teams in (non-critical) situations at the beginning of games perform worse when the audience is larger. This result is consistent with the theory of a home choke rather than a home field advantage. Our results have potentially large implications for general questions of workplace design and help to further understand how the social environment affects performance. We demonstrate that the amount of support, i.e. positive feedback, from a friendly audience does affect performance.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Choking under pressure – Evidence of the causal effect of audience size on performance

Böheim

Grübl

Lackner

2019

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

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“…This result is also supported by studies using data from professional golf (Hickman and Metz 2015;Hickman et al 2018) and weight lifting (Genakos and Pagliero 2012). Furthermore, scholars employing data from professional tennis find indication for gender differences in the effect of pressure on performance (Paserman 2010;De Paola and Scoppa 2017;Cohen-Zada et al 2017). Most of these studies investigate whether performance changes drastically under pressure and hence, look at whether an acute performance decrease under pressure, i.e., complete failure, occurs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…Hence, it allows analyzing precisely the effect of pressure on performance (see Kahn 2000). In consequence, scholars turned to the question under which circumstances choking and/or underperformance occurs in sports (e.g., Dohmen 2008;Jordet 2009;Toma 2015;Cohen-Zada et al 2017;Hickman et al 2018). Many of these studies focus on the analysis of performance under pressure in penalty shootouts in soccer and do not paint a consistent picture on the pressure-performance relationship (e.g., Dohmen 2008;Jordet 2009;Apesteguia and Palacois-Huerta 2010;Arroundel et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance under Pressure on the Court: Evidence from Professional Volleyball

Bozhinov

Grote

2018

SSRN Journal

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This study analyzes how psychological pressure affects performance. It refers to the discussion on differences between choking, i.e., an acute performance decline under pressure and underperformance under pressure. When performance outcomes are not defined binary even slight performance decrements can have huge consequences for future career. To study the consequences of psychological pressure on performance, we employ data on the serving performance of 213 professional volleyball athletes in 226 matches. We do not find any evidence for the existence of severe performance decrements under pressure (i.e. choking). However, athletes serve less effectively under pressure, i.e., they serve less direct points and less good serves. In consequence, we find that these subtler performance changes of serving players negatively affect overall team performance. Thus, we show that even if choking in the sense of an acute failure does not occur, performance decrements harming team production exist. This might be explained by single team members trying to avoid being held responsible for failure. Strengthening group cohesion to reduce psychological pressure on single group members might be a fruitful strategy to cope with similar problems in other working environments.

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“…This could be due to male underestimation of female opponents, misplaced chivalry, or 'choking' due the ego-threat of being beaten by a women (Baumeister, 1984). I note a recent analysis of grand-slam tennis which suggests that men may be particularly vulnerable to choking (Cohen-Zada, Krumer, Rosenboim, & Shapir, 2017). The analysis of upsets supports this idea.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Female chess players outperform expectations when playing men

Stafford¹

2017

Preprint

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Stereotype threat" has been offered as a potential explanation of differential performance between men and women in some cognitive domains. Questions remain about the reliability and generality of the phenomenon. Previous studies have found that stereotype threat is activated in female chess players when they are matched against male players. I use data from over 5.5 million games of international tournament chess and find no evidence of a stereotype threat effect. In fact women players outperform expectations when playing men. Further analysis shows no influence of degree of challenge, nor of player age, nor of prevalence of female role models in national chess leagues on differences in performance when women play men versus when they play women. Though this analysis contradicts one specific mechanism of influence of gender stereotypes, the persistent differences between male and female players suggest that systematic factors do exist and remain to be uncovered.

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Choking under pressure and gender: Evidence from professional tennis

Cited by 85 publications

References 42 publications

Choking under pressure – Evidence of the causal effect of audience size on performance

Choking under pressure – Evidence of the causal effect of audience size on performance

Performance under Pressure on the Court: Evidence from Professional Volleyball

Female chess players outperform expectations when playing men

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