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social dynamics
An audience changes your performance depending on the task difficulty.
A 1965 study demonstrated that the mere presence of others improves performance on simple tasks while hindering it on complex or unfamiliar ones.
Robert Zajonc argued that social presence increases physiological arousal. This arousal strengthens the 'dominant response,' which is usually the correct one for simple tasks, but often an incorrect or fumbled one for tasks requiring concentration.
Your performance under pressure is less about your skill and more about whether the task is second nature.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Robert Zajonc, 1965, Science
- What the check found
- The claim accurately attributes the theory to Zajonc's 1965 Science publication and correctly states the core mechanism and the results observed.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.