Making Free Throws

One of my students plays for Connors' women's basketball team and last week she got me thinking about Social Facilitation and Social Inhibition.

In 1898 Norman Triplett did the first experiment on the influence of people on performance. He found that people wound string on his "winding machine" more quickly if they were part of a group of people than if they were alone.

His conclusion? "That's interesting."

Fast forward...

Over a century of research has revealed that sometimes being in a group makes you perform better, but sometimes it makes you perform worse. The term for the first is Social Facilitation, the second is Social Inhibition.

The question has been, when does being in a group help and when does it hurt?

The answer is: it depends. "Dr G, that doesn't appear to be an answer." Ah, but it is.

If the behavior is something that is difficult, but you are good at it, a group makes you perform better. If the behavior is difficult, and you are not good at it, a group makes you perform worse than when you are alone.

This is called the "dominant response." Groups enhance your dominant response.

Crowds help professional basketball players. They hurt amateurs. The dominant response of a professional is to make free throws. The dominant response of an amateur is to miss a lot of them.

A Lebron James has the chance to make a free throw to win the NBA championship. 18,000 fans are screaming. His odds of making it are higher than if he were by himself in the gym.

You win a drawing and have a chance to hit a free throw at half-time for $10,000. You have a week to practice it. You do great during practice! Then it comes to making the free throw at half-time, with throngs of people around, cheering for you. Will your odds of making it increase or decrease?

Decrease. Making free throws is not your dominant response. You can make them when not in a crowd. A crowd will cause you to perform worse.

This brings me to my student/athlete. A couple of weeks ago she asked me if I would sponsor her in a fund raiser for the team - $1 for each free throw she would make out of 100 attempts. She made 73 of them. For those of you who aren't very good in multiplication, that meant I owed her $73. I told her, "You better shoot 73% during the season", and I gave coach the check.

How does this apply?

When she shot 73% there were no fans around. When she shoots free throws during the season, will there be? Nod your head yes. That will make a difference. Will she do better or worse than 73% during the season?

It depends. "There is that non-answer again, Dr. G."

It depends. Is making free throws her "dominant response?" If it is, she will do better in the crowd of fans. If it isn't, she will do worse.

I told her, "I'm going to keep your free throw statistics during the season."

I'll let you know how she does.