Men and women react differently to a missing sports audience

[Eldorado]

Without an audience, men run slower and women faster: The lack of spectators during the coronavirus pandemic appears to have had a noticeable effect on the performance of athletes at the 2020 Biathlon World Cup, a new study by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) in Psychology of Sport and Exercise shows. According to the new analysis, women also performed better in complex tasks, such as shooting, when an audience was present while men did not.

Social facilitation theory states that a person's performance is impacted if other people watch them. The mere presence of an audience improves the performance of simple tasks, especially those that require stamina.

"The studies have been relatively clear so far, but the results are more heterogeneous when it comes to more complex coordinative tasks," explains Amelie Heinrich from the Institute of Sports Science at MLU. In general, it is assumed that performance tends to deteriorate when there is an audience.

Full article at Science Daily: Link

[HandsomeGorilla]

Because often the drive in these sorts of events is subconsciously sexual