The Surprising Benefits – and Risks – of Trash Talk
By Zaria Gorvett, BBC, October 13, 2019
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Incredibly, those who had been the targets of trash-talking performed significantly better than those who hadn’t. “That’s interesting because though we tend to think of it as being a way of intimidating another person, and diminishing their performance, what we’re finding is that when you’re the recipient of trash talk, you become extra motivated to outperform your opponent,” says Yip.
Oddly, this is the only consequence of the technique that people seem to be able to predict. When the team asked people how they thought trash talk would affect a hypothetical opponent, there was a sizeable gulf between their expectations and reality. “We accurately predict that it’s distracting, but we fail to predict that it can be motivating,” says Yip. “There’s basically a failed mental model here.”
