If you’ve ever frozen during a presentation or stumbled over your words when someone was watching, you’re not alone — and science may have an explanation. A new study co-authored by Mi3 neuroscientist Zahra Rezazadeh digs into how being watched changes the way we learn and act.
The study shows that being judged can make us hesitate — literally. Zahra explains why social pressure makes us second-guess ourselves and what we can do about it.
Mi3: Zahra, your paper has quite a striking title: “Social judgment interferes with action generation during instrumental learning.” Can you explain what you actually studied in simple terms?
Zahra: Absolutely! In plain language, we wanted to know: does being watched and judged change the way we learn to act? We asked people to play a computer game where they had to press keys (or not press keys) to win or avoid losing money. We ran this game in three situations — when they were alone, when someone was just quietly present, and when someone was actively judging their performance.
Mi3: And what happened when they felt judged?
Zahra: They got worse at learning to take action! When participants knew their payoff depended on the experimenter’s evaluation, they were less likely to learn the “Go” actions, regardless of whether these Go actions were to obtain rewards or to avoid punishments. Interestingly, their ability to not act — the “NoGo” actions — didn’t suffer. It’s like social pressure made them hesitate or second-guess themselves when they needed to act.
Mi3: So you’re saying it wasn’t just nerves — you could actually see it in their brains?
Zahra: Well, we didn’t directly measure brain activity with something like fMRI, but we used pupillometry to measure tiny changes in pupil size. That’s a reliable window into arousal and cognitive effort. Under social evaluation, their pupils reacted less strongly when they had to act, suggesting that their brain’s action-preparation system was dampened.
Mi3: Why does this matter outside the lab?
Zahra: Think about job interviews, public speaking, or even being called on in class — those are all situations where you’re being evaluated. Our findings suggest that social pressure can make people less likely to act, even when action would be beneficial. That might explain why some people “freeze” under scrutiny, or why we sometimes underperform exactly when we want to do well.
Mi3: So if I’m about to do something nerve-wracking, like giving a speech, what’s the takeaway?
Zahra: The key point is that in our article, we’re talking about “learning” while being judged. When you’re learning on your own, free from outside eyes, there’s no social pressure shaping your progress. So use that time to truly learn. Then, when it’s time to be in front of others, focus on performing what you’ve already mastered. Of course, practicing in front of others can also help. Exposure to being watched might train your brain not to overreact, so that when the real moment comes, you can act more naturally.
Check out the original article and Zahra Rezazadeh’s profile.
Reference:
Rezazadeh, Z., Bahrami, B., Schütz-Bosbach, S. (2025), Social judgment interferes with action generation during instrumental learning. Journal of Psychophysiology, 39:2, 74-86.