Lay Beliefs About the Impact of Reminiscing About Sport Milestones on Future Performance

Competitive athletes often avoid reminiscing about the milestones they reach as they pursue their goals in sport. We conducted four studies that showed that one reason for this may be the reminiscing-is-debilitating belief-the tendency for people to believe that reminiscing about milestones causes worse future performance. Basketball fans and players (total N = 1,029) read scenarios about athletes who had reached a milestone and were continuing to pursue an ultimate goal. Our results showed that people believed that athletes should reminisce about the milestone for a shorter amount of time to help their future performance (Study 1) and that athletes who were portrayed as reminiscing about their milestone accomplishments were expected to perform worse in a subsequent competition due the expectation that reminiscing reduces preparedness for, and commitment toward, ultimate goals (Studies 2-4). These findings help explain why many athletes avoid maximizing their positive feelings after milestone successes.