Page 82 - How to Shine on Stage

Baumeister, 1998), these factors can contribute to a better performance.
A supportive audience reduces the pressure in the performer to prove
themselves, which in turn leads to a more successful performance. Con-
versely, several reasons indicate that the presence of a supportive audi-
ence may have a negative effect on the performance. Indeed, people who
are positively disposed towards us can often provide help which only
temporarily alleviates the consequences of stress, which does not help us
to improve our coping with stressful events (Butler & Baumeister, 1998).
80 Those who try to help us may misjudge the situation and provide an inef-
fective type of support that further aggravates the situation for us (Cutro-
na, 1996, in Butler & Baumeister, 1998). A supportive audience usually
sets high expectations for a familiar performer, and can thus make the
How to Shine on Stage timated (Tesser et al., 1989). The burden of the audience’s expectations
performer feel that the situation is more challenging than originally es-
can generate pressure that will negatively affect the performance, espe-
cially if the performer’s individual expectations do not match those of
the audience (Baumeister et al., 1985). The pressure to meet the high ex-
pectations of a sympathetic audience elicits in the performer physiologi-
cal changes which indicate the performer’s anxiety about managing the
situation and their ability to do so successfully (Allen et al., 1991). High
expectations and demands can translate into unexpectedly weak perfor-
mances if the performer cannot cope with the pressure. Demanding per-
formances can cause a particular vulnerability to the negative effects of
pressure, as they require automated activity from the performer.
Pressured to perform well, they turn their attention to the perfor-
mance in order to achieve success (Baumeister, 1984). Self-awareness
can be a major mediator of performance failure in complex tasks (Lew-
is & Linder, 1997). And musical performance is exceptionally demanding
and requires extraordinary psychophysical fitness. A successful musical
performance requires the performer to focus only on the physically and
mentally harmonious experiencing of the music during the performance,
while their psychomotor skills relating to the technical demands of the
piece need to be so automated as to allow them to focus their attention on
the music (Kohut, 1992). A supportive audience increases the performer’s
sense of self-awareness. Those in the performer’s favour are likely to be
more attentive to the performance than others (Tesser et al., 1989, in But-
ler & Baumeister, 1998), which can make the performer feel intensely scru-
tinized. An unsupportive audience is less attentive to the performance.
Jennifer Butler and Baumeister (1998) have reached four main con-
clusions in their research on the impact of a supportive audience on mu-
sical performance.