1 Management Division, Columbia Business School, Columbia University.
2 Department of Management and Organizational Behavior, Stern School of Business, New York University.
Psychol Sci. 2018 May;29(5):804-813. doi: 10.1177/0956797617744796. Epub 2018 Feb 28.
Research has established that competing head to head against a rival boosts motivation and performance. The present research investigated whether rivalry can affect performance over time and in contests without rivals. We examined the long-term effects of rivalry through archival analyses of postseason performance in multiple high-stakes sports contexts: National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Men's Basketball and the major U.S. professional sports leagues: National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), and National Hockey League (NHL). Econometric analyses revealed that postseason performance of a focal team's rival in year N predicted that focal team's postseason performance in year N + 1. Follow-up analyses suggested that the performance boost was especially pronounced when one's rival won the previous tournament. These results establish that rivalry has a long shadow: A rival team's success exerts such a powerful motivational force that it drives performance outside of direct competition with one's rival and even after a significant delay.
研究已经证实，与竞争对手正面交锋可以提高动力和表现。本研究调查了竞争是否会影响没有竞争对手的比赛中的长期表现。我们通过对多个高风险体育环境中的季后赛表现进行档案分析来研究竞争的长期影响：美国全国大学体育协会（NCAA）一级男子篮球和美国主要职业体育联盟：美国国家篮球协会（NBA）、美国国家橄榄球联盟（NFL）、美国职棒大联盟（MLB）和国家冰球联盟（NHL）。计量经济学分析显示，N 年焦点团队对手的季后赛表现预测了 N+1 年焦点团队的季后赛表现。后续分析表明，当一个人的竞争对手赢得上一届比赛时，这种表现提升尤其明显。这些结果表明，竞争具有深远的影响：竞争对手的成功产生了如此强大的动力，以至于即使在与竞争对手没有直接竞争之后，甚至在很长时间之后，这种动力仍能推动表现。
