A systematic review and meta-analysis of the relationship between flow states and performance
Harris, Allen, Vine and Wilson combined 22 studies from 20 articles, 13 in sport and 9 in gaming, with 2,462 participants in the meta-analysis. The pooled correlation between flow and performance was 0.31 (95 per cent interval 0.24 to 0.38), 0.32 for sport and 0.30 for gaming. The authors state that current evidence cannot determine the causal direction or the mediating mechanisms, and that their funnel plots suggest there may have been some publication bias, noting that no study reported a negative relationship.
Harris, Allen, Vine and Wilson combined 22 studies from 20 articles, 13 in sport and 9 in gaming, with 2,462 participants in the meta-analysis. The pooled correlation between flow and performance was 0.31 (95 per cent interval 0.24 to 0.38), 0.32 for sport and 0.30 for gaming. The authors state that current evidence cannot determine the causal direction or the mediating mechanisms, and that their funnel plots suggest there may have been some publication bias, noting that no study reported a negative relationship.
Written from the abstract and results section, open-access repository copy, 2026-10-31.
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Harris, D. J., Allen, K. L., Vine, S. J., & Wilson, M. R. (2021). A systematic review and meta-analysis of the relationship between flow states and performance. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 16(1), 693-721. doi:10.1080/1750984X.2021.1929402 https://doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2021.1929402