Performance under pressure in skill tasks: An analysis of professional darts

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 15; no. 2; p. e0228870
• Main Authors: Ötting, Marius, Deutscher, Christian, Schneemann, Sandra, Langrock, Roland, Gehrmann, Sebastian, Scholten, Hendrik
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 21.02.2020; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Athletic Performance - physiology; Athletic Performance - psychology; Athletic Performance - statistics & numerical data; Audiences; Biology and Life Sciences; Darts (Game); Explicit knowledge; Human performance; Humans; Memory; Models, Psychological; Models, Statistical; Motor Skills - physiology; Performance prediction; Physical Sciences; Pressure; Psychological aspects; Psychology; Setting (Literature); Skills; Social aspects; Social pressure; Social Sciences; Sport science; Sports - psychology; Sports - statistics & numerical data; Stress, Psychological; Success; Workplaces; United States; Germany
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228870

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.