Andy’s Quick Hits (35): Men and Women Performed Better, and Worse, and Differently, with a Missing Audience

The pandemic has has many tragic consequences on the lives of millions of people but it has also enabled research into unforeseen topics. And this piece of research drew my attention. Firstly, it interested me as a sports person, but also having being involved intensively with inclusion and diversity topics (often gender diversity) in the workplace.

The researcher from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) researched performance across the biathlon (that challenging mix of cross country skiing and shooting) world cup events which was held without audiences across 2020 and compared this to the 2018/19 season with audiences.

What did they find?

For men competing it was such:

• They performed worse in the skiing section without audiences
• They performed better in the shooting section without audiences

For women it was such:

• They performed better in the skiing section without audiences
• They performed worse in the shooting section without audiences

Men and women therefore are affected in opposite ways to performing in front of or without audiences. What…