How to Perform Better Using Psychology

Dramatic lighting: check.

           Imagine that it's the big football game. The last game of the playoffs, of the season. Win this, and your team  members are the county champs. Lose, and, well, there's always next year - but you'd rather not think about that. Too bad you had a sloppy first half and you're down by 5 points exactly. There's only a few precious seconds left on the clock, and your team's mood is getting desperate and bleak. The home crowd is hungry for a win, and the quarterback just let you know a second ago that you're going to be making the last play. "What? The last play? Oh shit!" you say. By the time you get around to your starting position and stare down the 40-or-so yards remaining, your mind has had just enough time to process the words and make you dizzy as a result. Frantically, you scan your thoughts for what to do, how to do it, and where to go. At this time, the long hours on the field, on the track, in the gym, it all comes back to you. You remember how much you've prepared for this moment, and in the split seconds before the play begins, you analyze the situation. You remember that when it all comes down to it, beyond all the strategy and tactics, football is a simple game. Important, but simple.
           Before you know it, the ball ends up in your hands. A shred of self-doubt enters your mind, as your feet forget how to move. But then, the crowd decides to spare you. A startling roar from the audience shifts your body into gear, and you realize what they're all rooting for. They want you to dodge this guy, run past this one, and fight through this one; and you listen. One moment, you're battling for every yard, the fight of your life. The next, you've won. You've done it. The fame, the glory, the bitches, it's all yours. But: could you have done it without that little bit of help from the crowd?
          Maybe not, says psychology.

Social Facilitation and You

          Social facilitation is a complicated term for a sensation most anyone can relate to. Simply put, it states that what we do well, we are likely to do even better in front of an audience, especially a friendly one; what you normally find difficult may seem all but impossible when you are being watched. This only further emphasizes the importance of practice and preparation. Plenty of people will tell you that they don't work well under pressure, but oftentimes the problem is that they procrastinated far too long and aren't ready when the situation demands. A criminal who hot-wires cars on a regular basis is far more lucky to successfully steal one when being chased by the police than the average layman.

         Possibly, you feel as though you knew this all along (this could be the hindsight bias). That our performance is not based solely on our abilities, but also our internal awareness, is not an unheard of, or even uncommon, notion. So how can one use this knowledge to their advantage? 

         

Not that kind of arousal, buddy.

 1. Imagine an audience, or imagine that there isn't one.

         Some people focus on internalizing and think about nothing but themselves when the moment of truth  comes. Others imagine familiar faces, or a mass of onlookers to rally themselves up in a situation. These are both effective strategies, but only in certain cases. For example, if your job requires you to cut boxes for an extended amount of time, and you wish to finish more quickly, you can use your imagination to bring about grandiosity and your own form of arousal. If you're on the Hunger Games and you've got to terminate someone with a weapon you've never seen before, it might be advisable to ignore the millions that are watching you and hoping that you fail (hypothetically, of course). Thankfully, the power of the mind can also be used to trick itself.

              2. Always come prepared, never not.
        As far as I know, Martin Luther King Jr. didn't wing "I Have a Dream". A solid preparation goes a long way in how you perform. Michael Phelps was probably super-engaged by the nearly global support he received  in his conquest for numerous golds, but every interview involving his coach reveals brutal and painful dedication, practice, and preparation. If you've ever delivered a pre-written speech without rehearsal, you know how bad nerves can get in front of an audience. On the other hand, not much feels better than a well-executed talk that gets a great crowd response.
              3. Help diminish the effect of social influence when the effect is negative.
      While the researchers studying this material decided that there was a certain limit where facilitation went from bad to good, they also agreed that an individual's response to peers affected this limit. Although there are many models as to how social facilitation works, almost all agree that a person is only as affected as much as they care. And while this goes against nearly everything I stand for, it may be better sometimes to simply not care about the outcome and what anyone thinks.