The Influence of Winner and Loser Effects on the Outcome of Sporting Competitions

Across the animal kingdom it has been observed that outcomes of conflicts are influenced by past experiences, whereby previous winners are likely to keep winning and losers are likely to continue losing. These so-called “winner and loser effects” are hypothesized to result from factors such as information acquisition and endocrine responses following the initial bouts. This talk applies the understanding of this phenomenon to a novel domain: patterns of winning and losing in baseball and softball double headers. Findings suggest that winner and loser effects contribute to the outcomes of sporting contests which has implications for sports scheduling and sports psychology.