Gremlins in My Head: Predicting Stage Fright in Elite Actors

Abstract

The presence of others can create a social phobia often called "stage fright," yet surprisingly few studies have examined stage fright at its literal, namesake level-acting-and why even professional actors sometimes experience inhibiting anxiety in front of audiences. In this study, 151 "Pro-c" (i.e., elite professional) actors were given a brief measure of the Big Five personality factors as well as measures for locus of control and self-efficacy. In addition, the performance anxiety index was adapted to focus specifically on acting and therefore serve as a measure of stage fright. Using a stepwise regression, three significant predictive variables for stage fright emerged: emotional stability, gender, and locus of control. Although stage fright is an issue a majority of actors experience, female actors with low emotional stability and an external locus of control would seem to be the most at risk. Controllability rather than efficacy may be a variable to pursue in future anxiety research.

Anxiety and Performance in Sex, Sport, and Stage: Identifying Common Ground

“…Related to shyness, stage performance anxiety shares commonalities with social phobia (social anxiety disorder) , distinct from performance anxiety in that the condition involves a general fear of social interaction that extends beyond just the fear of public performances. But social phobia and anxiety share similar cognitive distortions (Osborne and Franklin, 2002; Glassman et al, 2014), with performers high in social phobia experiencing higher perceived threat such that the threshold trigger for anxiety may be substantially lower (Kenny, 2009; Goodman and Kaufman, 2014).…”

“…Other personality characteristics have also been associated either positively or negatively with stage anxiety. For example, neuroticism, the predisposition for adverse reactions to stress, alienation, and negative emotionality, is a strong predisposing factor for performance anxiety, with one multivariate analysis indicating that negative emotionality predicted over 50% of the variance in individual performance (Goodman and Kaufman, 2014). In contrast, high self-efficacy , an overall assessment of the performer’s confidence, as well as an externalized locus of control (or attribution), an indicator of performance confidence associated with immediate and specific circumstances, are often associated with lower anxiety and better performance (Goodman and Kaufman, 2014).…”

The psychology of professional and student actors: Creativity, personality, and motivation

“…This general picture of the psychology of professional actors has also led to the use of actors as participants in the investigation of a number of other psychological processes and conditions such as facial recognition of emotions [ 15 ] post-traumatic stress disorder [ 16 ], and neurological effects of auditory-motor expertise [ 17 ]. In addition, some psychological phenomena that specifically affect actors—such as stage fright—have been examined using professional actors as participants [ 18 ]. Specifically, these researchers found that, among professional actors, females with low emotional stability and an external locus of control were most at risk for serious and recurring stage fright.…”

The Constricted Muse

“…Actors have been found to be higher on measures of absorption into imaginative worlds, changeability through absorption into work, and depersonalization of self (Goldstein & Winner, 2009;Panero, Goldstein, Rosenberg, Hughes & Winner, 2016;Thomson & Jaque, 2011Thomson et al, 2009). Elite actors score highly on measures of extraversion and openness to experience (both of which are highly correlated with standard measures of creativity) (Goodman & Kaufman, 2014). Taken together, this work paints a picture that perhaps actors are more able to be changed, or more malleable than individuals who generate their own work, but this does not mean they are more creativealmost, it is as if they are more responsive to engaging with others' creativity rather than coming up with their own solutions to problems they work out.…”