Page 84 - How to Shine on Stage

Let’s first review the positive side of the audience’s high expecta-
tions regarding performance success. Feather’s research (1969) confirms
the existence of a positive correlation between prior performance ex-
pectations and actual results. Bandura (1977) claims that the expec-
tation of success is conducive to self-attribution of competence and of
increased motivation to succeed. Interacting with those who expect suc-
cess can facilitate performance. Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1968,
in Baumeister et al., 1985) have demonstrated improvements in students’
82 intellectual performance when their teachers were confident of their

success.
The expectation of success can also have a negative impact on per-
formance. Zanna et al. (1975, in Baumeister, et al., 1985) wanted to re-
How to Shine on Stage include the consideration of the students’ expectations. The results indi-
peat the research conducted by Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson and also

cate that performance did not improve when both the teacher and the
student expected success, and was in fact worse than when the teacher
alone or the student alone expected success. Swann and Snyder (1980,
in Baumeister et al., 1985) have found through their research that per-
formance was worse if the teacher believed that the students were highly
capable and that performance success depended on capability. It is likely
that they perceived the teacher’s expectations of them and could not per-
form successfully under such pressure.
Numerous research results indicate that the expectancy effect de-
pends on whether it originates from the performer or from the audience
(Baumeister et al., 1979; House & Perney, 1974; Seta & Hassan, 1980;
Swann & Ely, 1984; in Baumeister et al., 1985). However, the argument
that external, public expectations produce outcomes that differ from pri-
vate expectations contradicts the previously mentioned findings that
state the external expectations have a self-fulfilling effect by producing
internal ones. Baumeister et al. (1985) found that personal expectations
of success improve performance, while audience expectations worsen it.
The results were most clear for the people with low self-confidence and
for men. The research also revealed that the audience’s expectations im-
proved the performance if they were convincing enough for the perform-
er to start expecting success.
Audience presence also exerts a strong positive or negative influence
on the success of a musical performance. Performers usually hold nega-
tive beliefs about the impact of the presence of an audience (Salmon &
Meyer, 1998). The root of performance anxiety, which has the greatest
impact on music performance success, lies in this social component, in