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

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.

诸多业余运动员认为，使用职业运动员的装备能够提升自身运动表现。这类装备可被视为带有正向传染效应（positive contagion）——即认为有益属性可从有生命的个体或物体转移至此前无属性偏向的物体的认知。本实验通过向其中一组参与者告知某推杆曾为职业高尔夫球手所用，以此诱导正向传染效应。本研究考察了正向传染效应在高尔夫推杆任务中对感知与运动表现的影响。相较于未持有该认知的高尔夫球手，认为自己正在使用职业球手推杆的受试者，会感知到高尔夫球洞尺寸更大，同时推杆表现更优，入洞次数更多。本研究结果为那些声称使用带有正向传染效应的物品可提升表现的轶事提供了实证支撑，同时进一步表明正向传染效应可对感知产生调节作用。