In the memorable opening exchanges of Full Metal Jacket, the recruits are asked to show off their ‘war face’.  It’s a phenomenon well known in sporting circles with swimmer Michael Phelps famously captured during the 2016 Rio Olympics glaring in preparation for the 200m butterfly final.

New research from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville explores whether such a ‘game face’ actually helps our performance.

“There’s anecdotal evidence of game face having an impact based on its common use among athletes,” the researchers say. “But we wanted to see if it would help on physical and mental challenges from a scientific perspective.”

Game face

The researchers conducted a couple of experiments whereby people were shown pictures of notable people demonstrating their game face, before doing their own game face as they performed various physical and cognitive tasks.

These tasks included submerging their hands into ice cold water for several minutes, and while there appeared to be no difference in the ability to withstand the cold among the ‘game face’ group and the control, the control did at least appear to pull the same expressions as they attempted to withstand the discomfort.

“Their reactions were spontaneous,” the researchers say. “The facial expressions were the same as those commonly associated with effort, pain, and competition.”

Interestingly however, whilst performing a game face appeared to have little influence on the physical performance of the volunteers, when they were asked to perform a mental test, they seemed to do 20% better than their peers in the control group.  The researchers believe this illustrates how the game face can help people to recover from stress more effectively.

Obviously there is a lot more work to be done before firm conclusions can be reached, but the researchers believe their initial findings are interesting enough to warrant such an investigation.

“If making a game face has the potential to improve performance, we may find this concept can have application outside of the traditional venue of sports,” they say.