Archers more concerned with how others see them choke more often in competition

The summary today

The two studies that measured this with the same scale do not say the same thing. In the first, 155 British competitors drawn from archery and golf, those who report having choked at least once do not score higher on public self-consciousness than those who never have, so they do not think more about the image they project, although among the archers alone the means point the other way (3.08 against 2.66) with no test to check it; they do, however, fear negative evaluation by others more and feel a stronger need not to show their imperfections, and they pay more attention to their own inner states. In the second, 115 competitive Italian archers, it is the image scale itself that is linked to a slightly higher number of choking episodes over the previous six months (r = 0.23, p < 0.05), while attention to one's own inner states is not (r = 0.16), and neither is social anxiety, even though it goes hand in hand with concern for one's image (r = 0.72). In both studies some measure of concern about how others see you goes with choking, but never the same one, and the scale built to measure it directly says yes in one study and no in the other; even where the link is present, a correlation of 0.23 accounts for about five per cent of the differences between archers. These are questionnaires collected on one occasion, with two different definitions of choking: having had it at least once in a lifetime, or how many times in the previous six months.

Also phrased as: "fear of judgement and choking"; "thinking about what others say in competition"; "public self-consciousness and choking"; "being watched and archery performance"

Evidence

• 2020
  Against Archers Published later

  A survey of 155 British competitors, 69 archers and 86 golfers, with Fenigstein's self-consciousness scale among the traits measured and a question on whether they had ever had a dramatic drop in performance outside their control (yes for 67.7 per cent). Between those who had choked and those who had not there are no differences in public self-consciousness, while private self-consciousness, attention to one's own inner states, is higher in those who had choked and, together with conscientiousness, is the largest contributor to the model that correctly classifies 71 per cent of participants. The comparisons are on the pooled sample of the two sports: in the table split by sport, among the archers alone public self-consciousness is 3.08 in those who had choked and 2.66 in those who had not, a difference in the direction of the claim that the authors do not test.

  Personality Predictors of Yips and Choking Susceptibility · Philip Clarke, David Sheffield, Sally Akehurst

• 2020
  For Archers Published later

  In the same study two measures very close to the idea of image do go with choking: those who had choked fear negative evaluation by others more and feel a stronger need not to show their imperfections. The authors conclude that in those who choke attention tends to turn inward, but that concern with how one comes across to others may also be a source of choking. These comparisons too are on the pooled sample of the two sports.

  Personality Predictors of Yips and Choking Susceptibility · Philip Clarke, David Sheffield, Sally Akehurst

• 2021
  For Archers Published later

  115 competitive Italian archers, questionnaires at a single moment, with the Italian version of the same self-consciousness scale and the frequency of choking over the previous six months (one to seven, mean 3.08). Public self-consciousness is linked to choking (Spearman r = 0.234, p < 0.05), to social anxiety (r = 0.722) and to rumination (r = 0.570); private self-consciousness is not linked to choking (r = 0.161, not significant), and neither is social anxiety (r = 0.126). Public self-consciousness was not entered in the regression on choking frequency: the link is the correlation alone.

  An Exploratory Pilot Study on Choking Episodes in Archery · Pierluigi Diotaiuti, Stefano Corrado, Stefania Mancone, Lavinia Falese, Fábio Hech Dominski, Alexandro Andrade

Status history

1. 1990 Not studied No one in the registry's bibliography had yet linked archers' attention to the image they give others to choking episodes in competition.
2. 2020 Contested The first study to measure it gives a split answer. Among 155 British competitors, 69 archers and 86 golfers, those who report having choked at least once do not differ in public self-consciousness, the scale that measures how much one thinks about the image one projects; they do, however, fear negative evaluation by others more and feel a stronger need not to show their imperfections, two measures very close to the same idea, and they pay more attention to their own inner states. The null result holds for the two sports together: among the archers alone public self-consciousness averages 3.08 against 2.66, in the direction of the claim, but untested. The authors conclude that concern with how one comes across to others may be a source of choking. A single study, on a sample pooling two sports and with a very broad question about choking, whose results point two ways: contested.
3. 2021 Contested A second study, on 115 competitive Italian archers only, finds the link on precisely the scale that showed nothing in 2020: attention to the image one gives others is linked to a slightly higher number of choking episodes over the previous six months (r = 0.23, p < 0.05), while attention to one's own inner states is not (r = 0.16), and neither is social anxiety (r = 0.13). The two forms of self-focus swap places from one sample to the other, the definitions of choking differ and the link remains a weak correlation: the status stays at 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.

Research lines

• 56 studiesAnxiety and confidence in archery competition since 1986
• 8 studiesChoking and competitive pressure in archers

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