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hubie [soylentnews.org] writes:

Professional Athletes Perform Better against Former Clubs, According to Research [www.hse.ru]:

A team of Russian researchers affiliated with the HSE University, RANEPA, and NES found professional athletes to perform better against their former clubs. At least in some circumstances, emotions seem to have a greater effect on their performance than knowledge of the opponent's tactics. The study's findings are published in the Journal of Behavioural and Experimental Economics [sciencedirect.com] and may be useful for coaches, sports managers, and bookmakers.

By hiring a competitor's former employee, companies bring in their social capital, knowledge and skills, potentially weakening the competition. Since measuring employee performance may be difficult in a typical business environment, this study examined the sphere of professional sports, where such data is abundant, to track changes in athletes' performance against their former teams.

The study used econometric models on game data of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Hockey League (NHL), and six major European football leagues, available from the NBA.com, Hockey-Reference and Understat. The authors examined player performance data over time, taking into account history of transactions and players' matches against their former clubs. The variables included the dates and venues of the games, players' home and opposing teams, playing time, basic individual game statistics, and several more advanced performance indicators.

[...] The researchers assumed that the knowledge of opponents' tactics and the additional motivation both contributed to athletes' better performance against former clubs. While these two factors are likely to complement each other, the researchers ultimately found emotions to prevail over a better understanding of the other team's game.

Playing against former teammates can be a source of additional motivation for athletes. According to American football defensive tackle Barry Cofield, 'Realistically, it's not like any other game, especially when you first play that former team'. These matches arouse strong emotions, causing athletes to give the game their best. Apparently, emotions such as anxiety and anger have the greatest effect on loaned athletes' performance.

[...] 'Employees are motivated to perform better against their former employers. Situations in which one's former and current employers compete are not limited to sports but include bidding for contracts, power struggles between political parties, and marketing campaigns.

Journal Reference:
Artur Assanskiy, Daniil Shaposhnikov, Igor Tylkin, and Gleb Vasiliev, Prove them wrong: Do professional athletes perform better when facing their former clubs?, J Behav Exp Econ, 98, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2022.101879 [doi.org]

Original Submission