Frederick G. Grieve

An Experimental Examination of the Cohesion-Performance Relationship in an Interactive Team Sport

Abstract This study experimentally examined the cohesion-performance relationship. Undergraduate male volunteers were randomly assigned to 3-man basketball teams and teams were randomly assigned to receive either a cohesion-producing or a cohesion-reducing manipulation before competing. Level of cohesion and individual as well as team performance variables were assessed prior to and after each game. The manipulation successfully created teams higher and lower in cohesion. The results indicate that cohesion had a negligible impact on team performance. A stronger effect was found for the impact of performance on cohesion with winning teams having higher levels of cohesion than losing teams. These findings are consistent with previous literature and lend experimental support to the conclusion that performance has more impact on cohesion than cohesion has on performance.

Sport fans' responses to the end of the season

While the benefits of identification with a sport team have been described (Wann, 2006a), the conditions under which fans will change or switch identification have not been investigated. The present study was designed to address this gap. Participants (154 college students) indicated how likely they were to engage in various acts following a basketball loss in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship tournament by the University of Kentucky (UK) mens basketball team. Half of the vignettes described a loss early in the tournament, while half of the vignettes described a loss in the Final Four. Results indicated that the timing of the loss, level of team identification, level of basketball fandom and level of maladaptive fan beliefs all influenced the likelihood that participants partook in certain activities. The results are discussed in terms of the influences that affect such decisions.