Social "facilitation" as challenge and threat

The authors conducted an experiment to test a theoretical explanation of so cial facilitation based on the biopsychosocial moder of challenge and threa t. Participants mastered 1 of 2 tasks and subsequently performed either the mastered (i.e., well-learned) or the unlearned task either alone or with a n audience while cardiovascular responses were recorded. Cardiovascular res ponses of participants performing a well-learned task in the presence of ot hers fit the challenge pattern (i.e., increased cardiac response and decrea sed vascular resistance), whereas cardiovascular responses of participants performing an unlearned task in the presence of others fit the threat patte rn (i.e., increased cardiac response and increased vascular resistance) Con firming the authors' hypotheses and the applicability of the biopsychosocia l model of challenge and threat to explain these results.