Is it the Audience or is it You?
By: Michelle Skiba
In 1898, Norman Triplett had undertaken an experiment to examine the effect of an audience on an individual’s performance. One group of cyclists raced against the clock whereas another group of cyclists raced against fellow cyclists. As race times were recorded, Triplett’s data showed that race times increased when cyclists were racing other cyclists (Blascovich, Mendes, Hunter, Salomon, 1999). Triplett’s evidence suggested that the presence of an audience, in this case the other cyclists, positively affects an individual’s performance, which was represented by an faster cycling times for those racing other cyclists. This phenomenon would be referred to as the co-action effect (Blascovich, Mendes, Hunter, Salomon, 1999).
But if the co-action effect is indeed present in real life, why do some individuals choke under pressure
In 1965, Robert Zajonc conducted a series of experiments to further examine what factors are at play when a performer excels onstage while another falters. Zajonc proposed that social facilitation shared similarities with the Yerkes-Dodson Law. The Yerkes-Dodson Law states that performance is dependent on the type of task at hand. When faced with an easy task, increased arousal improves performance (Blascovich, Mendes, Hunter, Salomon, 1999). When faced with a difficult task, low arousal improves performance.
Therefore, Triplett's findings must be expanded upon in order to arrive at a more
appropriate conclusion regarding social facilitation. The presence of an audience is
not the sole causation of a successful performance. Rather, as Zajonc had asserted,
success is determined by the perceived difficulty of the task at hand in addition to the
presence of an audience. One should rehearse unlearned behaviors until they
become rudimentary so that once among others, one may rise to the occasion.
appropriate conclusion regarding social facilitation. The presence of an audience is
not the sole causation of a successful performance. Rather, as Zajonc had asserted,
success is determined by the perceived difficulty of the task at hand in addition to the
presence of an audience. One should rehearse unlearned behaviors until they
become rudimentary so that once among others, one may rise to the occasion.
Pushing You Forward
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Looking at the original Triplett study, the idea of social facilitation most probably came into effect. When looking for other examples of the Triplett study, you find even more events like this happening within the sports world besides the initial cycling experiment done.
In the example proposed now, what happens when this Triplett Study wants to be shined onto the world of Boxing or MMA? In these two sports you have two people going against each other, trying to prove to one and another that they are the better fighter, each fighter pushing eachother to do better. Where does intimidation come into play though. That is another variable within competitive sports isn’t it? The co-action effect can answer this. As explained before, the co-action effect is a phenomena where task performance increases by someone just doing the same task as you. So when it comes to intimidation, is that really a factor. Yes and no. You can try to intimidate the person. but it might not work since you’re actually driving the other person to do better. Within the spectrum of social facilitation though, it states that intimidation can lower the persons work level if they’re intimidated enough. To overcome this intimidation, we can also look at the audience effect. The audience effect is when you do better when you know you’re being observed upon by others. You're basically trying to prove to everyone that you are the better competitor in the fight. when it comes to the example shown here. You can see that the fighter with the title belt is the champion. He tries to intimidate his competitor to look better for the people and to scare his adversary, but what will happen? |