Being Slightly Behind Can Boost Performance

Research by CHIBE’s Jonah Berger and his colleague Devin Pope found that players who thought they were losing slightly halfway through a competitive game played in a lab setting were more likely to eventually win the game. This finding aligned with the researchers’ data from 60,000 collegiate and NBA basketball games, which showed that teams that were down by one point at halftime were more likely to win than teams that were ahead by one point at the half.