Comment by aswegs8
5 hours ago
Reminds me of amateur table tennis. There is a strange dynamic where you down regulate your performance unconsciously when the opponent is playing worse and vice versa.
Could be described as some physical form of this effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asch_conformity_experiments
The term would be conformity / normative social influence.
Surely this has nothing to do with specifically table tennis, nor that it's amateur.
A better example would be mixed boys/girls sports classes in school, where the boys deliberately hold back as to not injure/scare the girls.
It's a pretty obvious and human thing not to go out and completely destroy a much weaker opponent. We're social animals after all.
There also may be an element of energy conservation, there's objectively no need to put in any more effort than necessary. Inefficient.
I think the difference is that, in the table tennis example, it happens unconsciously and you can't help it. But you're right, it likely happens in most sports.
The mixed boys/girls classes example is, as you said, deliberate. And I too remember holding back on purpose in such situations when I was a kid.
With the arcade, no one was deliberately holding back. I'm sure of it.
Is it that you’re holding back against weaker opponents, or that you’re more excited and engaged when you’re playing against someone that forces you closer to the edge of your ability?