Do professional athletes choke when they don't have time to stop and (over) think?

Agustín Indaco () and Ira Teqja ()
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Agustín Indaco: Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
Ira Teqja: Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar

Economics Bulletin, 2025, vol. 45, issue 1, 357 - 369

Abstract: Previous research suggests that professional athletes choke when performing unopposed high-pressure tasks, such as taking penalty kicks. This article extends the literature by studying whether football (soccer) players choke when they have an opportunity to score in late-game open-play situations. These situations are markedly different because in such instances players do not have time to stop and (over) think. We suggest that these situations closely resemble high-pressure professions and mirror many of the stressful scenarios we regularly experience. We find that players consistently underperform relative to expectations in late-game situations when their team is down by one goal. However, players perform to expectations when the game is tied. This finding is consistent with players being loss averse.

Keywords: Pressure; Choking; Football; Loss aversion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J2 M5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-03-30
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