Abstract
Understanding and predicting how individuals perform in high-pressure situations is of importance in designing and managing workplaces. We investigate performance under pressure in professional darts as a near-ideal setting with no direct interaction between players and a high number of observations per subject. Analyzing almost one year of tournament data covering 32,274 dart throws, we find no evidence in favor of either choking or excelling under pressure.
Highlights
The effect of pressure on human performance is relevant in various areas of the society, including sports competitions [1], political crises [2], and performance-based payment in workplaces [3], to name but a few
While the effect of pressure on effort tasks is obvious and well documented, in skill tasks the potential psychological factors at play are likely more complex, such that we focus on these tasks in the following
We find no evidence that professional darts players are impacted by pressure situations
Summary
The effect of pressure on human performance is relevant in various areas of the society, including sports competitions [1], political crises [2], and performance-based payment in workplaces [3], to name but a few. Our empirical investigation of individual’s performance in pressure situations is based on a large data set from a skill task, namely professional darts, comprising 32,274 individual dart throws, for a comprehensive empirical test of performance under pressure.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
