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A mental profile tells archers apart from athletes in other sports only in part

5 studies · 550 archers measured

ForContextAgainst201820202022202420262018, for, n = 1892020, for, n = 1552023, for, n = 1182023, context, n = 1182018, context, n = 602026, context, n = 28
Each circle is a study: its position gives the year, its row whether it is for, against or context, its size how many participants it measured. Light circles are studies on other populations or without archers.

The three comparisons that can be read in figures say the same thing: some differences exist, but they concern a few scales and leave the groups largely overlapping. Against drag racers, archers stand out only for seeking fewer thrills, while neuroticism, extraversion, experience seeking and boredom do not separate them. Against British golfers of the same standard they differ on nine scales out of twenty, always with small effects, between 3 and 9 per cent of the variance: less fear of judgement, less social anxiety, less need to look perfect, less extraversion. In Turkey, across four sports, archers report more confidence and more commitment but less sense of control, and the profile recognises them in sixteen cases out of twenty-five, mistaking them mostly for dancers. These are cross-sectional studies, each with a single country and few comparison sports, and none asks whether the profile comes from the shooting or from the people who choose it.

Also phrased as: "archer psychological profile"; "the archer's mind compared with other sports"; "mental skills of archers"; "archers and golfers"; "archer mindset"

In practice

It is said that archers have a mind apart from other athletes: more patient, more inward, less in need of adrenaline and an audience, and that this profile can already be spotted in the youngsters who take up the sport.

Evidence

Status history

  1. 2018 Reported The first comparison on the same scales comes from the United Kingdom: forty-five archers and a hundred and forty-four drag racers. Only one thing separates the two sports, sensation seeking, lower in the archers on the total score and on two of its four scales, with small effects; neuroticism, extraversion, experience seeking and boredom do not. In the same year a Russian comparison of young archers and rifle and pistol shooters describes differences, but without figures to show how much the groups overlap. A single readable study, cross-sectional: reported.
  2. 2020 Reported Sixty-nine archers and eighty-six British golfers of the same standard, measured on the same twenty scales: there is an overall difference (Wilks' lambda 0.70), but it concerns nine scales out of twenty and each explains between 3 and 9 per cent of the variance. The archers report less fear of judgement, less public self-consciousness, less social anxiety, less need to look perfect and less extraversion. The second study says the same as the first, a partial distinction, but it is still cross-sectional with a single comparison sport: reported.
  3. 2023 Reported A hundred and eighteen athletes from the province of Aydin, twenty-five of them archers, fill in mental toughness and loneliness scales. The archers report more confidence and more commitment than athletes in track and field, fitness and dance, but less sense of control, and their loneliness sits in the middle. The profile recognises the archer in sixteen cases out of twenty-five, and when it misclassifies an archer it takes them for a dancer or a track athlete, almost never for someone from fitness; a single dimension explains 92 per cent of the separation and the groups remain largely overlapping. Three studies in the same direction, all cross-sectional and one in a regional journal: the status stays reported.
  4. 2026 Reported An Indian comparison between fourteen university archers and fourteen target shooters finds the archers lower on the concentration scale, 9.7 against 14.1, with twice the spread among the shooters. It is a single scale on two small groups, in a journal the registry marks as a questionable venue, and a venue like that does not decide a status. The three comparisons that can be read in numbers remain, all cross-sectional and all pointing the same way: differences on some scales, groups that largely overlap. Reported.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). A mental profile tells archers apart from athletes in other sports only in part (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/archers-mental-profile-other-sports

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_profilomentalearcierialtrisport,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {A mental profile tells archers apart from athletes in other sports only in part},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/archers-mental-profile-other-sports},
  note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Other claims in this domain

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