okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Monday, March 09, 2009
Slightly behind = more motivation
"Encouraging people to see themselves as behind others, albeit only slightly, should increase motivation."
That's from the conclusion of an academic paper that I read about in the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ reported:
According to their [Jonah Berger and Devin Pope] findings, men's college basketball teams increase their chances of winning by 5.5% to 7.7% if they are behind by a single point at halftime. In fact, if a team goes to the locker room after 20 minutes down by one point, they actually have a 51.3% chance of winning the game.
I think most people recognize what they reported. If you are a little bit behind your competition, you work pretty hard to do better. It is encouraging to be just a little bit behind.
It's the feel of the competition that keeps you moving. Also being first just by some seconds would make you push harder. But being second is even more encouraging. I remember someone saying that although he was number one in the world he always trained as he would be only the second.
