PUBLIC VERSUS PRIVATE EXPECTANCY OF SUCCESS - CONFIDENCE BOOSTER OR PERFORMANCE PRESSURE

Abstract

Experiment 1 found that performers' private expectancies of success improved performance, whereas the audience's expectations for success lowered performance. Results were strongest for persons low in trait self-consciousness and for males. In Experiment 2, audience expectations for success raised performance if they were convincing enough that the performer privately began to expect success. Otherwise, (unconvincing) audience expectations of success again lowered performance. These results appear to fit a model holding that audience expectations of success constitute performance pressure, which harms performance except when substantial private confidence is created. © 1985 American Psycholo..