Archers who choke, and those who get the yips, come out less conscientious
1 study · 155 archers measured
The summary today
There is a single British study of 155 competitive athletes: 69 archers and 86 golfers. Among the archers three in four say they have choked at least once in competition (75.4 per cent) and almost half that they have had target panic (43.5). For choking, the picture holds even in the means for the archers alone: those who have experienced it describe themselves as less conscientious, 3.80 against 4.38, and also as more self-focused and more weighed down by their parents' expectations; across the whole sample a set of ten measures classifies 71 per cent of the athletes correctly, with conscientiousness carrying the largest weight. For target panic, by contrast, the means by sport show the difference coming from the golfers: in the archers who suffer from it conscientiousness is 3.92 against 3.96 in those who do not, which is the same, while in golfers with the yips it is 3.53 against 4.30; the paper runs no separate tests by sport, and the overall effect of the yips narrowly misses significance (p = 0.06). Neuroticism and high personal standards do not distinguish either group; for the yips what carries weight is rather the need to appear perfect to others, which is not the same as perfectionism in the sense of demanding standards for oneself. The measures are short questionnaires collected after the problem appeared, not before.
Also phrased as: "target panic is for perfectionists"; "personality and target panic"; "choking in archery"; "who falls apart under pressure"; "yips and personality"
In practice
Target panic is said to strike the overly precise perfectionist who wants every arrow in the middle, and the archer who falls apart in competition is said to be simply too anxious.
Evidence
-
2020
For Archers Published later
69 British competitive archers, within a sample of 155 athletes including 86 golfers: those who report choking in competition score lower on BFI-10 conscientiousness, 3.80 ± 0.9 against 4.38 ± 0.65 in the archers, with a significant difference across the whole sample (p < 0.001). Choking is common in the archers: 75.4 per cent report it.
Personality Predictors of Yips and Choking Susceptibility · Philip Clarke, David Sheffield, Sally Akehurst
-
2020
Against Archers Published later
In the same study, in archers who report target panic conscientiousness is 3.92 ± 0.98 against 3.96 ± 0.80 in those who do not: no difference. The difference in the whole sample (3.72 against 4.16, p < 0.001) comes from golfers with the yips, 3.53 ± 0.77 against 4.30 ± 0.72. The multivariate test comparing the effect of the yips across the two sports is not significant (p = 0.08), so the comparison within the archers remains descriptive. Target panic affects 43.5 per cent of the archers.
Personality Predictors of Yips and Choking Susceptibility · Philip Clarke, David Sheffield, Sally Akehurst
-
2020
Context Archers Published later
Across the whole sample of archers and golfers, the discriminant analysis: for choking, ten variables classify 71 per cent of the athletes correctly (canonical R² 0.41, p = 0.002), with the largest contributions from conscientiousness (coefficient -0.57) and private self-consciousness (0.51); for the yips, four variables reach 69 per cent (canonical R² 0.37), led by conscientiousness and perfectionistic self-promotion.
Personality Predictors of Yips and Choking Susceptibility · Philip Clarke, David Sheffield, Sally Akehurst
-
2020
Context Archers Published later
In archers who report choking, private self-consciousness (3.70 against 2.62) and perceived parental expectations (2.32 against 1.86) are also higher. Neuroticism, on the other hand, distinguishes neither choking nor the yips (F = 3.33 and 2.48, not significant), and neither do high personal standards (F = 0.12 and 0). For the yips, by contrast, two perfectionistic self-presentation scales enter the model, non-display of imperfection and perfectionistic self-promotion.
Personality Predictors of Yips and Choking Susceptibility · Philip Clarke, David Sheffield, Sally Akehurst
Status history
- 1990 Not studied In the registry's bibliography nobody had yet set the personality traits of archers who choke or suffer from target panic beside those of archers who do not: the idea that it is a perfectionist's problem circulated without data.
- 2020 Contested The first and only study arrives, on 69 archers and 86 British competitive golfers, and it points two ways. For choking, the claim holds even in the archers alone: those who have experienced it describe themselves as less conscientious (3.80 against 4.38), and across the whole sample conscientiousness is the trait with the largest weight in a model that classifies 71 per cent of the athletes correctly. For target panic it does not: in the archers who suffer from it conscientiousness is 3.92 against 3.96, and the difference in the whole sample comes from the golfers. The paper runs no separate tests by sport, so the comparisons within the archers are means only. Neuroticism and high personal standards distinguish no one. With half of the claim holding in archers and half not, in the same study: contested.
Related
Related articles
- Choking in archery: how common it is, who it happens to and what goes with itHow many archers say they fall apart in competition, what those who choke most often have in common, and how much pressure costs on measured scores.
- The arrow goes by itself: yips and premature release in archeryEarly release as the studies see it: how archers describe it, how common it is in kyudo, how many get over it and why it differs from the release block.
Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). Archers who choke, and those who get the yips, come out less conscientious (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/conscientiousness-choking-target-panic
@misc{campagna2026_coscienziositachokingyips,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {Archers who choke, and those who get the yips, come out less conscientious},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/conscientiousness-choking-target-panic},
note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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