Gender differences in skilled performance under failure competitive environments: evidence from elite archers

Area of Science:

• Sports Psychology
• Performance Psychology
• Human Performance

Background:

• The sporting arena serves as a natural laboratory for examining human behavior under stress.
• Understanding how individuals cope with pressure is crucial in performance psychology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate gender differences in archers' ability to manage adversity.
• To identify specific performance decrements under pressure, such as the "cold-hand effect."

Main Methods:

• A Poisson general linear model was employed to analyze the "cold-hand effect."
• The study examined how the performance of the last arrow in a set depended on the preceding two shots.
• Player gender and game status were interacted with past performance to detect gender-specific responses to pressure.

Main Results:

• A significant "cold-hand effect" was observed in both male and female archers, indicated by performance drops after consecutive missed bullseyes.
• While no significant gender difference was found in third-arrow performance, female archers scored significantly lower on the last arrow after near-poor performance or in must-win situations.
• Female archers demonstrated greater vulnerability to the negative impacts of trailing or recent failures compared to male archers.

Conclusions:

• Female archers may be more susceptible to psychological and physiological pressures in high-stakes competitive scenarios.
• The findings suggest distinct coping mechanisms and stress responses between genders in archery performance under adversity.