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Your favorite athlete closes in for a win; the crowd holds its breath, and at the crucial moment ... she misses the shot. That competitor just experienced the phenomenon known as “choking,” where despite months, even years, of practice, a person fails right when it matters most. Why does this happen, and what can we do to avoid it? Noa Kageyama and PenPen Chen explain why we choke under pressure.

Lesson by Noa Kageyama and PenPen Chen, animation by Olesya Shchukina.

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