Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
专业人士在压力和分心面前会表现失常吗？
Do professionals choke in the face of pressure and distraction?
摘要
We ask whether facing partisan audiences affects the execution of a skilled task. Our setting is penalty shootouts in the high-stakes environment of elite professional football (soccer). In this context, performers take penalties under intense pressure, while facing a subset of the crowd behind the goal who attempt to distract them through visual and auditory tactics. Using data on 1,322 penalties taken in the later rounds of major English cup competitions from 1992 to 2026, we find no evidence that having supportive allied spectators behind the goal provides a strategic advantage. This implies that elite professionals in this domain can effectively screen out crowd-induced distractions when performing under extreme stress.
中文摘要
我们探讨面对党派性观众是否会影响一项熟练任务的执行。研究情境为精英职业足球这一高风险环境中的点球大战。在此情境下，执行者在巨大压力下主罚点球，同时面对球门后方一部分试图通过视觉和听觉手段干扰他们的观众。利用1992年至2026年英格兰主要杯赛后期阶段1，322个点球的数据，我们发现没有证据表明球门后方有支持性盟友观众会提供战略优势。这意味着该领域的精英专业人士在极端压力下执行任务时，能够有效屏蔽观众引发的干扰。