Why We "Choke" Under Pressure, According To Neuroscience

[mvmac]

Basically it all comes down to how you perceive the incentive, as a loss or a gain. For me, I think I'd be in the high loss adverse group that choked when the incentive was framed as a gain. In terms of golf, I never won a tournament in college but had a couple decent tournaments. I remember the potential to win a tournament freaked me out. Just being honest

When I won matches in match play it was always one or two up. I would also feel "uncomfortable" if I was up early. I typically felt more comfortable if I had a putt to halve than a putt to win the hole.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/07/why-we-choke-under-pressu_n_6096916.html

Quote:

Moments of "just messing up" in high-pressure situations may seem random and uncontrollable, but scientists are beginning to demystify just why it is that we choke, and how we might be able to prevent such high-stakes errors.

It turns out that being too attached to winning may have been what caused Maroney to choke, according to some new research from neuroscientists Johns Hopkins University .

Whether you choke under pressure might have more to do with your motivation: specifically, to what extent that you are driven by a desire to win or by a desire to avoid losing. If you're very loss-averse -- meaning that you hate losing more than you love winning -- your chances of choking will be lower. But for those who value the rush of winning over the pain of losing, the likelihood of choking is often higher.

Quote:

The researchers explain this phenomenon by looking at the ventral striatum, a brain region that may connect incentive-driven motivation and the execution of physical performance. The activity of this brain region suggests that an individual's attachment to winning is key to how they perform under pressure.

They proved it with this experiment: 26 adult participants, between the ages of 20 and 30, were tested on two consecutive days. They learned a brief but difficult video game requiring precise hand control on the first day. On the second day, the participants were placed in an MRI machine. Before each two-second round of the game, they were told what the stakes for that round would be: Losing $100 in cash, gaining $100 or anything in between, based on how they performed. The amount of money that the subjects got to take home was determined at random based on their performance on one of the 300 rounds, which gave them an incentive to perform their best in each round.

Separately, the participants were asked a series of theoretical questions about what they would gamble and how much risk they'd take for various outcomes, so that the researchers could determine their level of loss aversion.

“We found that the way we framed an incentive -- as a potential gain or loss -- had a profound effect on participants’ behavior as they performed the skilled task,” Chib said in the statement. “But the effect was different for those with high versus low aversion to loss.”

High loss aversion actually helped participants when they faced increasing losses -- they didn't choke, even when the loss was up to $100. Those with high loss aversion performed well when there were potential gains of $25 or $50, but when offered a $100 reward, they choked. The opposite happened to those with low loss aversion: their performance improved with both increasing prospective gains and increasing prospective losses, but they choked when threatened with a $100 loss.

[Big C]

Playing under pressure is a fascinating subject to me, and one that I've spent more time working on in the past year than I had in all of my adult life beforehand. It never ceased to amaze me that the same swing that can produce an effortless 78 one day, can just as easily go out and shoot a 94 when there is something on the line.

There's no doubt that I've improved my pressure play over the past few years, but I still notice a deep segmentation in terms of how I perform, given the specific competition. For instance, I tend to play really well (often better than my index) in tournaments when

1. It's an individual competition that I'm playing for myself

2. It's a partner event with someone I know well, or a small team event with a group I know very well.

I tend to play very poorly under pressure when

1. It's a partner event with a partner who I don't know very well, or who is a better golfer than me

2. It's a large team event. (10 or more participants on each side)

In general, I think when the stakeholders in my success know me, and know how well I'm "capable" of playing (like in the first two examples) it frees me to go out, focus well and play my best game.

When I'm trying to "prove" myself (like in the last two examples), that leads to tension, which leads to poor shots, which leads to very bad things.

[Patch]

JMHO, but like the yips, choking has it's origins in being scared of failure. Being scared means losing focus on the task at hand. Any way that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

[14ledo81]

Interesting.

I had always thought that what separates the "best" from "really good", was there ability to do well when the pressure is on.  Neat to hear an explanation why though.

[GolfLug]

Interesting study. Years ago I read a lot of material in regards to emotional engagement and it's relation to performance. Fear of losing actually heightens 'hard' focus. Hard focus leads to localized deployment of awareness to parts of body that the brain unconsciously deems as the most crucial to survival. For example very often ones grip tightens unconsciously when faced with a heightened challenge (hero shot or putt to win, etc.). The brain hormones over-powers general proprioception and 'less' important senses. All in all those who have not actively trained for 'soft' focus in high pressure situations will experience the phenomenon where the body and brain's general decision and executive branches are disturbed and operate in 'emergency' mode (AKA well know as fight or flight response mode).

Now which of the two, whether the fear of losing or the love of winning has a greater effect is not as well understood. I think this is an interesting study which sheds further light. Not sure which group would I fall I think I would fall in the one that loses more easily when about to win more than when about to win.

[iacas]

This seems to go along with the idea that there are spotlight seekers and spotlight avoiders. Some people will do just enough to prove to themselves that they are good, but not so much that they get the added recognition of actually winning.

I consider myself good under pressure. It doesn't matter what the situation is; I perform well. I've always procrastinated a bit, so perhaps I taught myself to really be able to bear down. I don't know.

I understand both sides of things, but I might have to put myself squarely in the middle.

Two situations spring to mind.

First, when playing for my PAT, I was on the cut line for making it and needed two pars to finish. I hit a lousy 3W off the 17th tee and had a full hybrid in to medium length par four. I might have rushed the tee shot a bit, and the tee was quite crowned, but whatever. I pulled off the best shot of the day with that hybrid and nearly made the putt for birdie. On the 18th, a par three over water with a pin tucked on the back left part, I chickened out a little and hit my tee shot short/right of the green. It was safe. So was the chip… ten feet short of the cup, which was two paces from the back left edge of the green and the steep slope behind. I made the putt, gave a little fist pump, and was happy to have done something most people wouldn't have done (just the putt, not the rest of the round). Though only 2% or so of people pass the PAT their first time.

The second is in the stupid rec hockey league in which I used to play. Championship game. I'd scored a goal earlier, just missed a roofed backhand shot a few minutes before, and our team was trailing 3-2. A teammate scored in the last minute to tie it up. In OT (4-on-4) we took a penalty. I was out on the 4-on-3 penalty kill. 40 seconds goes by and a teammate gets the puck with a lane up the right side. I wasn't sure whether to go to the bench or head up the ice to provide support. I decided quickly that I trusted myself in that situation more than a teammate (yeah, well, it's honest! :D) and went up the ice. He fired a bad angle shot on the goalie who kicked it out into the slot where I was. I had 10 feet and a yawning net. The puck was flat on the ice and nobody was going to reach me in time. All I remember thinking was "Just guide it on home. Don't screw it up." I did, winning 4-3 on a short-handed OT goal. I skated by the bench, gave some subtle glove bumps to some teammates, and shook the opposing team's hands. We'd just won the championship and I was (it surprised even me) kind of "meh" about it. After all, my kid could have made that shot. I didn't really give credit to myself for being in the right spot, for staying on the ice, for NOT screwing it up, etc.

In golf and other situations I want to be the one on the field competing. I have a bit of it now in our rec soccer league. I'm not even the best on our team (Mike is, though I'll deny it to his face :D), but if we're down a goal I want to be on the field. In golf, I don't mind the difficult or tricky shots - I feel like "Ha! Watch this! I'll show YOU!" It's a weird sort of aggression, perhaps, a bit of a "show-off" type attitude.

I hate being beaten, but I don't particularly care overly about winning. I like "defeating" things, but more so when they're internal. Making the putt at the PAT was more a matter of "ha, I made a great putt when it mattered!" and wasn't at all like "Yay! I passed my PAT!"

So… that was probably more than anyone cared to read, but basically, I think I'm somewhat loss averse (it may be the biggest component - I despise losing), but unlike Mike I don't mind if I'm winning big, I don't mind being put in a shot to WIN a match or beat someone, or pull off a shot… I kind of like those situations too. But when I accomplish them, I'm more happy about having proven something to myself, and don't really care about the external stuff.

I remember back to my junior golf days. I won the EDGA junior stroke play series in the summer of 1995. The first year I'd even played golf was 1993. In 1994 kids that had been country club members with rich parents were making fun of me, and in 1995 I'd shut them all up by beating them. I remember that being more satisfying than actually winning something, and when I look at the trophy today, I remember 1994 a whole lot more than I remember 1995 (except that I was three under through six when the final round was washed out).

So, who knows…

P.S. I relish the chances when my tee shot lands in a divot and I have a 9-iron from a tricky lie. I feel like the added concentration leads to better shot-making. I feel like I'll often hit a better shot there than I would if the ball was three inches to the left on a perfect lie, because it forces me to concentrate a bit more. So much of life requires very little thought, truly… it's nice to be challenged now and then. It's a good way to measure yourself, and I think that's important.

P.P.S. No, don't expect anyone to read this. Just hashing it out for myself.

[Yukari]

Basically it all comes down to how you perceive the incentive, as a loss or a gain. For me, I think I'd be in the high loss adverse group that choked when the incentive was framed as a gain. In terms of golf, I never won a tournament in college but had a couple decent tournaments. I remember the potential to win a tournament freaked me out. Just being honest

When I won matches in match play it was always one or two up. I would also feel "uncomfortable" if I was up early. I typically felt more comfortable if I had a putt to halve than a putt to win the hole.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/07/why-we-choke-under-pressu_n_6096916.html

We call that fear of success.

On the serious note, I hate losing more than I like winning.  That seems to correlate well with the study.  It also explains Tiger's dominance especially when he kept on saying "being second sucks!" or words to that effect.

[saevel25]

P.P.S. No, don't expect anyone to read this. Just hashing it out for myself.

Too late, I read the whole thing.

---

For me, the first shot of the round is usually my most nervous. Some shots just are naturally uncomfortable. That is more with me not wanting to make a bad a shot at that moment than how that shot effects the results of my round.

Even when I was competing as a Junior and in High School I never really got nervous with the situation at hand. I guess I really never kept track of how I was doing. I just played golf.

I tend not to think too far ahead in a round. I can go into the last hole knowing I am one down. When I start the hole, that usually gets forgotten and it is just me playing golf. I might stand over the approach shot knowing I need to hit it tight for a chance at a birdie putt. In the end, all I am doing is adjusting my aim to be more aggressive, but everything else is the same to me. It's just a golf shot.

When it comes to games, I like winning over losing. I get more satisfaction out of winning then I feel down over losing. I really don't hate losing more than I like winning.

That isn't to say I am totally anti-loss aversion. If I was playing the stock market, I would not place 50% of my net worth into trying to get as many gains as I want. I would make sure I was always secure and have a safety net. Then I guess I don't have much loss aversion since I would then not really care if I lost the money I was investing. I guess it would have to take something really substantial to engage my loss aversion.

I think I need to play in more tournaments next year to really figure out how I perform under different sets of pressure.

Still, I walked off the 18th hole at Winding Hollow GC winning a bet and @iacas owing me lunch the next time I am up in Erie, PA

[Golfingdad]

The article doesn't really define "under pressure."  I think that matters, because I feel like one way to avoid choking under pressure is to not consider yourself under pressure in the first place!

"Oh crap, if I don't pull this shot off, I'll lose."

"Oh, but wait.  This tournament cost me only $150 to enter, and if I come in second, I'll still get $75 back, AND I played a solid round regardless of how I finished AND the wife and kids are waiting at home for me to come hang out with them.  This is just a tiny part of my great, fun weekend.  So who cares?"

That said, I empathize with Mike and Erik in their examples, so I'd say that I'm in the loss averse group too.

[boogielicious]

The article doesn't really define "under pressure."  I think that matters, because I feel like one way to avoid choking under pressure is to not consider yourself under pressure in the first place!

"Oh crap, if I don't pull this shot off, I'll lose."

"Oh, but wait.  This tournament cost me only $150 to enter, and if I come in second, I'll still get $75 back, AND I played a solid round regardless of how I finished AND the wife and kids are waiting at home for me to come hang out with them.  This is just a tiny part of my great, fun weekend.  So who cares?"

That said, I empathize with Mike and Erik in their examples, so I'd say that I'm in the loss averse group too.

Money doesn't motivate me.  Eternal glory on the other hand......

[iacas]

That said, I empathize with Mike and Erik in their examples, so I'd say that I'm in the loss averse group too.

I don't know that Mike and I are similar in that sense. I don't mind losing so much as I want to win. I care more about the internal stuff than any of the external stuff. So, like you, I don't know that I ever really feel a lot of pressure , but I do like to show off a little sometimes.

[newtogolf]

Pressure is relative to ones confidence in performing under the given circumstances.  Some people feel a great amount of pressure in public speaking, I do not.  I am comfortable speaking in a small room or in a lecture hall so as long as I'm prepared I don't feel much, if any pressure.

I do feel a lot of pressure when I'm in contention, playing in a tournament and I have to hit a good - great shot to keep pace or win.   I've done much more public speaking than I have played competitive golf so the pressure I feel in golf is greater because I'm less accustomed to it and I have less confidence in my golf game than I do my ability to speak in front of an audience.

The pressure of winning or losing is secondary to me, I always want to win and I hate to lose so that pressure is constant and always present.  The additional pressures I feel comes from the level of confidence that I have in my ability and it's that added pressure that impacts my performance.

[Golfingdad]

I don't know that Mike and I are similar in that sense. I don't mind losing so much as I want to win. I care more about the internal stuff than any of the external stuff. So, like you, I don't know that I ever really feel a lot of pressure , but I do like to show off a little sometimes.

Yeah. I don't usually get first tee jitters, and often times am excited about the possibility of making the guys watching go "oooh." Doesn't mean they ever do, nor does it mean they should, but that's what sometimes hoes on in my head.

[Ernest Jones]

Yeah. I don't usually get first tee jitters, and often times am excited about the possibility of making the guys watching go "oooh." Doesn't mean they ever do, nor does it mean they should, but that's what sometimes hoes on in my head.

Hoes in your head? That's the Tiger mentality!

[Golfingdad]

Hoes in your head? That's the Tiger mentality! :-P

My head is big, and has a lot of different area codes.

[WUTiger]

Quote from Huffington Post article:

“Choking isn’t just poor performance," University of Chicago psychologist Sian Beilock, author of Choke , told Smithsonian . "It is worse performance than you are capable of precisely because there is a lot on the line.”

Controversial golf announcer and former U.S. Open champ Johnny Miller has an interesting view on "choking" which focuses on performance artifact. JM say choking occurs when an athlete varies his normal performance routine under pressure.

My biggest offense in this area is on a tight tee shot. If I tell myself "swing nice and easy," I tend to have too slow a backswing and not come fully to the top. This leads to a low pull or duck hook because my arms take over and get out ahead of everything.

If I just line up the shot and hit it (my ideal pre-shot routine), I'll likely get at least the first cut of rough.

And, if the HP article is correct, I don't choke properly . I worry more about not losing, so my chances of choking should be less frequent.

On the tee shot thing, I have a pattern. I probably need to work on my concentration, and learn to block out memories of past bad events on tight fairways.

[lgreer]

Hoes in your head? That's the Tiger mentality!

Now that's funny! Best riff on a typo I've seen in a long time, EJ.

If "hoes in the head" is the Tiger mentality, maybe that's the secret to winning golf. Just knock the "l" out of those holes in your head... :)

[Ernest Jones]

Now that's funny! Best riff on a typo I've seen in a long time, EJ.

If "hoes in the head" is the Tiger mentality, maybe that's the secret to winning golf. Just knock the "l" out of those holes in your head... :)

Glad you liked it, I'm still the funniest guy I know.