One study found that reappraising one's emotions does not come with better performance
1 study · 61 archers measured
The summary today
There is a single study, of sixty-one athletes from the Chinese national team, measured by questionnaire a week before a competition. Between the habit of reappraising one's emotions and performance the simple correlation is 0.044, and in the model the total effect is practically zero (-0.007, p = 0.964). That zero, however, comes from two paths that cancel out: at equal confidence those who reappraise more often do slightly worse (-0.27), while reappraisal raises confidence and along that route the link turns positive (0.20). Performance, moreover, is not just the competition: it is an index that adds up the qualification score, the set points from the head-to-head matches and a score for the athlete's technical category. The positive route runs through confidence, because those who reappraise more also have more confidence (0.46); with attention measured by a pencil-and-paper test, on the other hand, reappraisal is not linked. It is a cross-sectional association, from a single sample and with a model built on the same data: what can be said is that, overall, reappraising emotions does not come with better results, not that it is of no use.
Also phrased as: "cognitive reappraisal"; "reframing anxiety as energy"; "emotion regulation in competition"; "seeing a mistake differently"; "cognitive reappraisal and confidence"; "turning anxiety into energy"; "reframing emotions in competition"; "positive thinking and score"
In practice
Archers are advised to reframe competition anxiety as useful arousal, or a mistake as information, on the idea that changing how they look at the emotion improves the result.
Evidence
-
2022
For Archers Published later
61 Chinese national team athletes (26 men and 35 women), questionnaire a week before a competition: cognitive reappraisal correlates with performance at 0.044, and the total effect in the model is -0.007 (interval -0.354 to 0.271, p=0.964).
Effect of Cognitive Reappraisal on Archery Performance of Elite Athletes: The Mediating Effects of Sport-Confidence and Attention · Dongling Wang, Ti Hu, Rui Luo, Qiqi Shen, Yuan Wang, Xiujuan Li, et al.
-
2022
Context Archers Published later
The zero comes from two opposing paths: the direct effect of reappraisal on performance is negative, -0.268 (interval -0.486 to -0.036), while the one running through confidence is positive, 0.202 (interval 0.011 to 0.419). The model explains 33.6 per cent of the variance in performance. The positive route runs through confidence: reappraisal predicts sport confidence with β = 0.455 (p < 0.01, interval 0.044 to 0.684, a medium effect).
Effect of Cognitive Reappraisal on Archery Performance of Elite Athletes: The Mediating Effects of Sport-Confidence and Attention · Dongling Wang, Ti Hu, Rui Luo, Qiqi Shen, Yuan Wang, Xiujuan Li, et al.
-
2022
Context Archers Published later
In the same sample confidence goes with better attention (β=0.377, interval 0.148 to 0.588), and part of its link with performance runs through attention (0.130, interval 0.021 to 0.257). Performance is an index that adds up the qualification score, the set points from the matches and the athlete's technical category. Reappraisal is not related to attention measured with the paper-and-pencil test (β=0.200, interval -0.069 to 0.449), and the path was removed from the model; the chain from reappraisal through confidence and attention to performance is not significant either (β=0.059, interval -0.004 to 0.145).
Effect of Cognitive Reappraisal on Archery Performance of Elite Athletes: The Mediating Effects of Sport-Confidence and Attention · Dongling Wang, Ti Hu, Rui Luo, Qiqi Shen, Yuan Wang, Xiujuan Li, et al.
Status history
- 2022 Reported The first and only study measures sixty-one Chinese national team archers a week before a competition. The total effect of cognitive reappraisal on performance is practically zero (-0.007; p = 0.964) and the simple correlation is 0.044. Inside the model two paths cancel out: a direct negative one (-0.27) and a positive one that runs through confidence (0.20). A single cross-sectional study with a null result: the claim is written in the direction of that result and is reported.
Related
Related articles
- Competition anxiety: what it costs an archer's score, and when it arrivesDoes competition anxiety cost archers points? What the studies measured, when in a competition the tension arrives and where the research stops.
- Self-confidence and score: what goes together and what comes firstSelf-confidence and score in archers: what the studies measured, how strong the link is, and why nobody knows whether confidence comes before the points.
- Mental skills training in archery: what the measurements on archers showWhat has been measured on archers' mental training: score, confidence, anxiety, programme length, mock competitions and each of the tools in turn.
Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). One study found that reappraising one's emotions does not come with better performance (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/cognitive-reappraisal-archery-performance
@misc{campagna2026_rivalutazionecognitivaprestazione,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {One study found that reappraising one's emotions does not come with better performance},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/cognitive-reappraisal-archery-performance},
note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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