Sep

22

Choking, from Jeff Watson

September 22, 2024 |

Ever choke during a big event?

The Brain Really Does Choke Under Pressure
Study links choking under pressure to the brain region that controls movement

Have you ever been in a high-stakes situation in which you needed to perform but completely bombed? You’re not alone. Experiments in monkeys reveal that ‘choking’ under pressure is linked to a drop in activity in the neurons that prepare for movement.

The researchers found that, in jackpot scenarios, the activity of neurons associated with motor preparation decreased. Motor preparation is the brain’s way of making calculations about how to complete a movement — similar to lining up an arrow on a target before unleashing it. The drop in motor preparation meant that the monkey’s brains were underprepared, and so they underperformed. To a certain extent, “you just don't perform better as the reward increases”, Moghaddam says.

Asindu Drileba writes:

This seems related something psychologists call habituation (defined as the diminishing of an innate response to a frequently repeated stimulus). I leaned about it from Daniel Cohen, the first economist I actually enjoyed reading (I recommend the books Prosperity of Vice, Homo Economics). Daniel Cohen mentioned that "habituation" is the reason why in some instances adding financial incentives makes people perform worse at a task.

He gives an example of a Kindergarten School experiment. The school had a problem with parents coming late. So the school said that for every time a parent comes late to pick their child they will be fined a certain amount (lest say $10 every time you come late to pick up your child). The result was that more parents actually came late to pick their kids.

The psychological interpretation might be that parents eventually valued money less than that coming late. So paying a fine made them feel like they have "paid off their sin" that is, the monetary fine erased their guilt.

Daniel Cohen also thinks we are all going to be immortal some day. Here is a nice podcast where he talk about his ideas.


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