Effect of priming cooperation or individualism on a collective and interdependent task: changeover speed in the 4 x 100-meter relay race

Bry, C., Meyer, T., Oberie, D. and Gherson, T. (2009) Effect of priming cooperation or individualism on a collective and interdependent task: changeover speed in the 4 x 100-meter relay race. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 31 (3). pp. 380-389. ISSN 0895-2779

Abstract/Summary

Priming effects of cooperation vs. individualism were investigated on changeover speed within a 4 x 100-m relay race. Ten teams of four adult beginner athletes ran two relays, a pretest race and an experimental race 3 weeks later. Just before the experimental race, athletes were primed with either cooperation or individualism through a scrambled-sentence task. Comparing to the pretest performance, cooperation priming improved baton speed in the exchange zone (+30 cm/s). Individualism priming did not impair changeover performance. The boundary conditions of priming effects applied to collective and interdependent tasks are discussed within the implicit coordination framework.