From soccer games to corporate boardrooms, what helps us win? Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, bestselling authors of "Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing," investigate the art of competition.
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There are few situations more anxiety producing than taking a test — especially a standardized test. For many of us, knowing that one score can alter your future is enough to produce butterflies, nail-biting and weak knees. But what if you could harness that anxiety and turn it into a tool for your success?
Bestselling authors Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman argue in their book, “Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing,” that you can do just that. In a recent study, scientists focused on two groups of Harvard students taking the GREs. Before the test, researchers told one group of students that anxiety could actually improve their performance. And indeed those students scored 50 points higher on their practice GREs. On the actual test, the group that had been encouraged scored a stunning 65 points higher.
The results of the study show that we can prime ourselves to thrive in stressful situations, argues Bronson. Being able to harness anxiety could be a game changer for anyone who is successful on a daily basis, but has trouble performing under stress.
The Worrier Gene
What separates those who dread tests days from those who don’t sweat an impending exam? Genetics, says Merryman. Some people have an allele, called methionine, that slows the brain’s reabsorption of the hormone dopamine. In a stressful situation, those with the allele have a flood of dopamine in the brain, creating the sensation of worry.
“The nickname for [people with this allele] is they’re the worriers,” Merryman explains. “In periods of stress … they have that flood of dopamine to the brain, and the brain just sort of shuts down.”
If you’re a worrier, don’t lose hope. Merryman says that your brain can adjust to routine stress — meaning you can thrive in high-pressure situations as long as you they’re familiar to you.
“Worriers can do really well if they’re accustomed to a stressful environment,” she explains. “On a day-to-day basis — presenting to the board, making a speech — you can get used to that. It doesn’t mean you don’t get stressed at all, but you can get used to it and perform really well.”
Fearing Failure
Performance under pressure isn’t the only element of competition — you also can’t be afraid to fail. Look at the example of running for public office. In 2010, voters cleaned out Congress and booted incumbents to the curb. But even in that banner year, 87 percent of incumbents were re-elected. If you want to be a politician, that 87 percent chance of failure can’t scare you.
A recent study of sitting state senators found that women and men evaluate the risk of failure differently. When male state senators were asked if they would run for Congress and if they thought they would win, they were willing to run even if they thought they would lose. But female state senators needed a shot at being elected to Congress to say they would run. Once they were told they had a 50 percent chance of winning, more women than men said they would campaign.
What does that mean? Essentially, says Merryman, women don’t like to waste time with unsuccessful ventures, while men are good at ignoring the odds that a risk won’t pan out.
“I did not see this going in, and when I started to see it I was very suspicious of it,” Bronson agrees. “Of course we care that only 18 percent of Congress is women and we want to improve that, so it’s important to know what’s going into how women calculate that decision to run.”
Striking a Balance
But women’s careful evaluation of the odds can also help them succeed. When researchers at the University of Texas looked at 3 million quarterly financial estimates done by 20,000 different analysts, they found that women were 7.3 percent more accurate at predicting a company’s earnings.
“It’s a strength or a weakness depending on the context,” she says. “For me, as a woman, I just want to ask myself, when I’m faced with a risk, can I look past whether or not I’m going to win or lose and look to the value in what the experience is?”
So if you’re someone who tends to shy away from failure, or doesn’t perform well in stressful situations, just think back to the experiment with Harvard students taking the GRE. None of us are stuck with an inherent level of competitiveness. We can work on processing information in ways that increase our chances of success.
So go ahead and dread #2 pencils and test days — just harness the dread to your advantage.
