Accelerating versus decelerating toward victory in sports: the impact on psychological momentum

In sports, athletes’ sense of progress toward desired or undesired outcomes shapes their experience of psychological momentum. However, progress in sports is rarely linear, leading to fluctuations in the perceived velocity of progress. In two studies (N = 77; N = 34), we examined how acceleration and deceleration in progress toward victory affect psychological momentum in cycling races. In Study 1, participants viewed curves representing the time gap between two cyclists and judged the outcome expectation, a classical psychological momentum dimension. In Study 2, participants experienced the race from a first-person perspective in virtual reality and rated three psychological momentum dimensions: outcome expectation, perceived momentum, and confidence. In both studies, the races simulated either catching up to an opponent (moving toward victory) or losing the lead (moving away from victory), with each occurring at an accelerating, linear, or decelerating rate within the same time frame. As hypothesized, we found that moving toward victory elicited more positive psychological momentum than moving away from victory (ps < .001). More importantly, we found a strong direction × shape interaction (ps < .001), with acceleration toward victory producing the most positive psychological momentum responses and deceleration the least, despite identical average progress. When moving away from victory, this pattern reversed: acceleration led to the lowest psychological momentum responses, while deceleration led to the highest. Together, these studies provide support for the idea that changes in the velocity of progress toward or away from victory play an important role in shaping psychological momentum in sports.