Scaring students can actually make them do better on tests, especially for guys and non-native speakers.
SSRN · March 18, 2026 · 6328881
The Takeaway
Contrary to the assumption that anxiety always impairs cognitive performance, this experiment used VR to show that fear can significantly boost verbal test scores. The effect suggests that emotional stress acts as a performance enhancer in specific academic domains rather than a universal distraction.
From the abstract
<p><span>While emotional states are widely correlated with academic performance, causal evidence remains limited. We investigate the causal effect of incidental emotions on verbal test performance using a laboratory experiment with undergraduate students. Participants were randomly assigned to either a Fear, Happiness, or Neutral condition induced through immersive virtual-reality videos immediately prior to completing a timed SAT-style verbal test. While the Happiness manipulation did not signi