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5 min · Paul Burns & Rikki Lear · 17 September 2026

Pressure is not a truth machine

A consequential moment can reveal something important. It does not reveal everything.

Pressure changes attention, activation, coordination and perceived consequence. Different people—and the same person at different times—respond differently to those conditions.

A weaker performance under pressure should be examined, not romanticised as the person’s true character. Define the demand and compare equivalent evidence before deciding what the event means.

“A pressured performance is still a performance under conditions.”

Further reading

  • Roy Baumeister, Choking Under Pressure
  • Sian Beilock, Choke