Study: Rivalry Can Boost Performance

It’s not often a scientific investigation recalls a great moment in running history, but a new study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology validates what was likely part of what propelled Sebastian Coe to victory in the 1984 Olympic Games.

Prior to the Games, Coe had been written off by a combative British press. Right after surging to win his second consecutive 1500-meter gold, he shouted and held up his index fingers in a victorious I-showed-you gesture to reporters.  

The emotional display suggests criticism from rivals can be a power motivator, which is precisely what researchers at the University of Exeter have concluded after an experiment involving a game of darts.

Forty male and female university students were blindfolded and threw darts at a dartboard. When they were told that their poor performance was their fault by a member of a rival university, the students rallied and their dart-throwing improved.

“If a person—an athlete, business professional or a recreational runner—gets discouraging feedback from someone they do not trust or see as an outsider, perhaps a key rival, their performance will not suffer if they actively try to prove this person wrong,” says lead author Tim Rees, Ph.D., a senior lecturer at the University of Exeter.

Interestingly, the study also found that positive feedback from a rival did not result in improved performance.

Results flipped when comments came from teammates. That is, when participants were criticized by people from their own university, their performance worsened. But when teammates offered encouragement, subjects recovered their confidence and bettered their performance.

The researchers say a mix of positive support from a colleague (running partner, spouse, or anyone on your team) and discouraging comments from an adversary is ideal. “[Downward performance spirals] can be reversed by harnessing the uniquely potent combination of ingroup influence and intergroup competition,” the researchers write.

In other word, “the study reminds us that negative outside feedback need not be a destructive force,” says Greg Chertok, M.Ed., director of sport psychology at the Physical Medicine Rehabilitation Center in Englewood, New Jersey. “The anger or frustration you feel from criticism from ‘rivals’ can be embraced as fuel and channeled into a strong performance.”  

 

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