Norman Triplett's Experiment
by Najma Mohamed
Procedure
Norman Triplett worked at Indiana University in their Psychological Laboratory (Aiello and Douthitt, 2001). His work started the study of the principle known as social facilitation, even though it was not named as such during Triplett’s time. His most well known experiment is often referred to as the “bicycle experiment.” In this experiment, Triplett ran three races. Each race had different conditions, in order to test what affected performance the most. The first race is run by a single individual who is racing against the clock by attempting to lower an established record. According to Triplett (1898), “the only stimulation of the rider being the idea of reducing his own or some other man's former time.” The second race is run by individuals racing against the clock, but they had a multicycle running the pace (Aiello and Douthitt, 2001). The third race is a competitive race in which the participants not only have to keep up with the pacemaker, but they have to beat the other contestants of the race. He then recorded data as needed, and analyzed those results to create various theories. Triplett also conducted other experiments that helped demonstrate this principle. One primary example of this is his experiment with fishing rods. In this experiment, Triplett had children turn a fishing reel alone and side-by-side with another person (Aiello and Douthitt, 2001). The results of this experiment were consistent with the results of the bicycle experiment.
Results and Researcher’s Interpretation of the Results
When Triplett (1898) analyzed the results of his study, he found that the unpaced races against time were much slower than the paced race against time. These results were only given to 25 miles because that is where the records of unpaced race against time stop, so the analysis would be consistent in that factor. In the table below, Triplett (1898) shows how the time per mile increases when the race conditions change from unpaced against time, to paced against time, and then once again to the paced competition race.
Triplett then continued on to analyze to account for the faster times of paced and competitive races (Triplett, 1898). He provides seven theories about why this may be so but the one most pertinent has to do with what he referred to as “the dynamogenic factors.” In this theory, Triplett (1898) states “ the bodily presence of another rider is a stimulus to the racer in arousing the competitive instinct; that another can thus be the means of releasing or freeing nervous energy for him that he cannot of himself release; and, further, that the sight of movement in that other by perhaps suggesting a higher rate of speed, is also an inspiration to greater effort.” Essentially, this entails that when an individual is racing against someone else, this allows them to tap into some energy that would otherwise be unavailable to them.
In his conclusion, Triplett (1898) states the following based on his experiments: “we infer that the bodily presence of another contestant participating simultaneously in the race serves to liberate latent energy not ordinarily available. This inference is further justified by the difference in time between the paced competition races and the paced races against time, amounting to an average of 5.15 seconds per mile up to 25 miles.” Triplett also mentioned that “the sight of the movements of the pacemakers or leading competitors, and the idea of higher speed” are also most likely to be dynamogenic factors as well.
You can read more about the Triplett experiment here.
Norman Triplett worked at Indiana University in their Psychological Laboratory (Aiello and Douthitt, 2001). His work started the study of the principle known as social facilitation, even though it was not named as such during Triplett’s time. His most well known experiment is often referred to as the “bicycle experiment.” In this experiment, Triplett ran three races. Each race had different conditions, in order to test what affected performance the most. The first race is run by a single individual who is racing against the clock by attempting to lower an established record. According to Triplett (1898), “the only stimulation of the rider being the idea of reducing his own or some other man's former time.” The second race is run by individuals racing against the clock, but they had a multicycle running the pace (Aiello and Douthitt, 2001). The third race is a competitive race in which the participants not only have to keep up with the pacemaker, but they have to beat the other contestants of the race. He then recorded data as needed, and analyzed those results to create various theories. Triplett also conducted other experiments that helped demonstrate this principle. One primary example of this is his experiment with fishing rods. In this experiment, Triplett had children turn a fishing reel alone and side-by-side with another person (Aiello and Douthitt, 2001). The results of this experiment were consistent with the results of the bicycle experiment.
Results and Researcher’s Interpretation of the Results
When Triplett (1898) analyzed the results of his study, he found that the unpaced races against time were much slower than the paced race against time. These results were only given to 25 miles because that is where the records of unpaced race against time stop, so the analysis would be consistent in that factor. In the table below, Triplett (1898) shows how the time per mile increases when the race conditions change from unpaced against time, to paced against time, and then once again to the paced competition race.
Triplett then continued on to analyze to account for the faster times of paced and competitive races (Triplett, 1898). He provides seven theories about why this may be so but the one most pertinent has to do with what he referred to as “the dynamogenic factors.” In this theory, Triplett (1898) states “ the bodily presence of another rider is a stimulus to the racer in arousing the competitive instinct; that another can thus be the means of releasing or freeing nervous energy for him that he cannot of himself release; and, further, that the sight of movement in that other by perhaps suggesting a higher rate of speed, is also an inspiration to greater effort.” Essentially, this entails that when an individual is racing against someone else, this allows them to tap into some energy that would otherwise be unavailable to them.
In his conclusion, Triplett (1898) states the following based on his experiments: “we infer that the bodily presence of another contestant participating simultaneously in the race serves to liberate latent energy not ordinarily available. This inference is further justified by the difference in time between the paced competition races and the paced races against time, amounting to an average of 5.15 seconds per mile up to 25 miles.” Triplett also mentioned that “the sight of the movements of the pacemakers or leading competitors, and the idea of higher speed” are also most likely to be dynamogenic factors as well.
You can read more about the Triplett experiment here.
A chart presented by Triplett (1898) during his study that showed results from all three conditions of the races. In this chart, the lowest curve represents the unpaced race against time, the middle curve represents the paced race against time, and the upper curve represents the paced competitive race.