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Replication data for: Putting Like a Pro: The Role of Positive Contagion in Golf Performance and Perception

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Replication data for: Putting Like a Pro: The Role of Positive Contagion in Golf Performance and Perception
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/BOC6K9
 
Creator Charles Lee
Sally Linkenauger
Jonathan Bakdash
Jennifer Joy-Gaba
Dennis Proffitt
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description Many amateur athletes believe that using a professional athlete's equipment can improve their performance. Such equipment can be said to be affected with positive contagion, which refers to the belief of transference of beneficial properties between animate persons/objects to previously neutral objects. In this experiment, positive contagion was induced by telling participants in one group that a putter previously belonged to a professional golfer. The effect of positive contagion was examined for perception and performance in a golf putting task. Individuals who believed
they were using the professional golfer's putter perceived the size of the golf hole to be larger than golfers without such a belief and also had better performance, sinking more putts. These results provide empirical support for anecdotes, which allege that using objects with positive contagion can improve performance, and further suggest perception can be modulated by positive contagion.
 
Subject Perception
 
Date 2011-10
 
Type Behavioral