Intimidation factor

Question: Does appearance, demeanor, or reputation of fellow competitors effect your performance in your races? Intimidation could be of any type really. Whether you're next to someone who looks like a real mean SOB, acts like a mean SOB, or has a reputation of being fast as hell and never losing, etc. Does it effect your performance in any way. Do you swim slower in the presence of such a person, or do they drive you to new bests? Or the converse, if someone looks weak, out of shape, or in some way inferior in skill to your perception of yourself, does it make you swim down to perceived level, or make you want to cause a crushing defeat? Some of this may not be in the main spirit of masters swimming of course. We probably shouldn't go around with the goal and hopes of crushing everyone else in the pool, but I was always curious what other people thought about it. If I'm eyeing up the competition and they look more in shape than I, its hard not to feel like i'm going to take a hard loss in my race. Of course I'd like to think I always push 101% on every race, but its hard to say whether or not I subconsciously hold back or push harder than I would've depending what the field looks like. Part of it probably comes back to the type of swimmer you are too. Do you thrive on competition and winning the race, or is it just 8 people swimming alone against the clock at the same time for convenience? No right or wrong answer, just thought i'd throw it out there.