Get Your Game Face On

A new study suggests that putting on a game face may help you in competitive performance.

Putting on a “game face” is simply projecting your mindset through behavior.

The research, published in STRESS AND HEALTH, examined the impact of game face on physical and cognitive performance. Participants were split into two groups - one putting on a game face in advance of a physical or cognitive test, the others not being asked to do anything in advance. While the results weren't that different between the groups for the physical task, the game face group did significantly better on the cognitive task.

(Game Face Expressions and Performance on Competitive Tasks, Matthew T. Richesin, Michael D. Oliver, Debora R. Baldwin, & Lahai A.M. Wicks. October 2019)