Abstract
Both team and individual sports require competition, whereas cooperation is more prevalent in team than in individual sports. In particular, team athletes have to compete (for starting roles) while cooperating (for team success) with the same teammates. For team athletes, competition and cooperative behavior, two mutually exclusive constructs according to earlier psychological research, might therefore be less incompatible than for individual athletes. In Study 1, team athletes attributed a higher demand to compete and cooperate with the same teammates or training partners to their sport than individual athletes to their sport. Study 2 showed that experiencing competition (vs. control) undermines information sharing less for team than for individual athletes. In addition, Study 2 demonstrated that priming competition undermines the accessibility of cooperative thoughts less for team than for individual athletes. Therefore, team athletes might be better at competing without ceasing to cooperate. Implications for collaboration in groups are discussed.
Highlights
The distinction between team and individual athletes is a key classification in sports (e.g., Allen et al, 2011)
Chronic Differences Related to Competition and Cooperation We assessed several personality measures related to competition to rule out potential differences between team and individual athletes that could have affected the perceived demand to compete while cooperating
Demand to Compete While Cooperating In line with Hypothesis 1, an analyses of variance (ANOVA) with sports affiliation as between-subjects factor and the demand to compete while cooperating as dependent measure revealed that team athletes, attribute a higher demand to their sport than individual athletes do, F(1, 101) = 18.11, p < 0.001, η2part. = 0.152, MD = 0.72, CI95% = [0.380, 1.045]
Summary
The distinction between team and individual athletes is a key classification in sports (e.g., Allen et al, 2011). Allen et al (2013) noted that after nearly 70 years of research relatively little is known about inter-individual differences between team and individual athletes. In their review on the relation between sports and personality, they concluded that team athletes tend to be more extraverted and less conscientious than individual athletes. We aimed to apply a more fine-grained approach similar to a person x situation interaction suggested by Mischel and Shoda (2010; see Shoda and Mischel, 2000): By testing the response of team versus individual athletes to competition (vs control), we aimed to target a specific difference between those two groups regarding their social behavior
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