Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 27, 2026
09:52
Setting Up a Stroke Team Algorithm and Conducting Simulation-based Training in the Emergency Department - A Practical Guide
Published on: January 15, 2017
17.6K
Prior shared success predicts victory in team competitions.
Satyam Mukherjee1,2,3, Yun Huang4, Julia Neidhardt5
1Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. satyam.mukherjee@gmail.com.
Nature Human Behaviour
|April 2, 2019
Summary
Prior shared success between teammates significantly boosts team winning odds across various sports, outweighing individual talent. This finding highlights the importance of teamwork and successful past collaborations in achieving victory.
Area of Science:
- Sports Science
- Team Dynamics
- Game Theory
Background:
- The "superstar effect" posits that individual talent enhances team performance.
- Existing research suggests that shared experiences and relationships improve team coordination and strategy.
- The impact of qualitative within-team relationships on competitive outcomes remains under-explored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the influence of qualitative within-team relationships on sports team performance.
- To determine if prior shared success between teammates impacts the probability of winning.
- To analyze this association across diverse professional sports and a popular online game.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of historical performance data from professional basketball (NBA), football (English Premier League), cricket (IPL), and baseball (MLB).
- Inclusion of data from the multiplayer online battle game Defense of the Ancients 2 to broaden the scope.
- Focus on the 'prior shared success' aspect of qualitative teammate relationships, examining past collaborative wins and failures.
Main Results:
- Prior shared success among teammates was found to significantly increase the likelihood of a team winning.
- This effect was consistent across all analyzed professional sports leagues and the online game.
- The positive impact of prior shared success on winning probability was observed to be independent of individual player talent.
Conclusions:
- Qualitative interactions, specifically prior shared success, are a critical factor in team performance.
- Team cohesion and history of successful collaboration are more influential than individual talent alone.
- Findings suggest that optimizing team composition should consider the history of successful partnerships between players.
Related Concept Videos
02:34Competition
24.4K
When organisms require the same limited resources within an environment, they may have to compete for them. Competition is a net-negative interaction. Even if two competing individuals or populations do not interact directly, the overall fitness of both competitors is lowered as a result of not having full access to the limited resource.
24.4K
02:17Ecological Succession
21.4K
Ecological succession is influenced by the processes of facilitation, inhibition, and toleration. Facilitation occurs when early successional species create more favorable ecological conditions for subsequent species, such as enhanced nutrient, water, or light availability. In contrast, inhibition happens when early successional species create unfavorable ecological conditions for potential successive species, such as limiting resource availability. In some cases, later successional species...
21.4K
04:49Robbers Cave
14.8K
During the 1950s, the landmark Robbers Cave experiment demonstrated that when groups must compete with one another, intergroup conflict, hostility, and even violence may result. At the Oklahoman summer camp, two troops of boys—termed the Rattlers and the Eagles—took part in a week-long tournament. During this time, their negativity culminated in derogatory name-calling, fistfights, and even vandalism and destruction of property. However, this work also revealed that such tension...
14.8K
02:27Predicting Molecular Geometry
45.6K
VSEPR Theory for Determination of Electron Pair Geometries
45.6K
01:21Interdisciplinary Care: The Health Care Team-I
2.6K
An interdisciplinary team includes many healthcare professionals working together and utilizing their skills, knowledge, and expertise to provide holistic and quality patient care.
Physicians
The physician's primary responsibility is to diagnose illness and direct the medical or surgical treatment of the condition. The authority to admit patients to a healthcare agency or institution and practice care within that setting is granted to physicians by the healthcare agency or institution...
Physicians
The physician's primary responsibility is to diagnose illness and direct the medical or surgical treatment of the condition. The authority to admit patients to a healthcare agency or institution and practice care within that setting is granted to physicians by the healthcare agency or institution...
2.6K
01:18Interdisciplinary Care: The Health Care Team-II
2.2K
An interdisciplinary team includes many healthcare professionals working together and utilizing their skills, knowledge, and expertise to provide holistic and quality patient care. Here are a few more healthcare professionals.
Physical Therapist
A physical therapist (PT) aims to restore function or prevent additional impairment in a patient following an injury or disease. Massage, heat, cold, water, sonar waves, exercises, and electrical stimulation are some treatments used by PTs to treat...
Physical Therapist
A physical therapist (PT) aims to restore function or prevent additional impairment in a patient following an injury or disease. Massage, heat, cold, water, sonar waves, exercises, and electrical stimulation are some treatments used by PTs to treat...
2.2K