The dynamogenic factors in pacemaking and competition
Norman Triplett examined official racing records and found that cyclists rode faster when paced or when racing against other riders than when riding alone against the clock. He then built a laboratory task in which participants wound fishing reels alone and in competition, a version of the same comparison that Adam Alter retells in Drunk Tank Pink. He attributed the advantage partly to physical factors such as shelter from the wind and partly to the presence of a competitor, which he believed released energy not ordinarily available. The paper is commonly treated as one of the first experiments in social psychology. It predates modern standards of design and reporting, and its importance today is historical: it is the starting point of the research on social facilitation rather than evidence that would be cited on its own now.
Norman Triplett examined official racing records and found that cyclists rode faster when paced or when racing against other riders than when riding alone against the clock. He then built a laboratory task in which participants wound fishing reels alone and in competition, a version of the same comparison that Adam Alter retells in Drunk Tank Pink. He attributed the advantage partly to physical factors such as shelter from the wind and partly to the presence of a competitor, which he believed released energy not ordinarily available. The paper is commonly treated as one of the first experiments in social psychology. It predates modern standards of design and reporting, and its importance today is historical: it is the starting point of the research on social facilitation rather than evidence that would be cited on its own now.
Written from the full text at Classics in the History of Psychology, read on 6 October 2026.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
9, 507-533. Cyclists' times were faster paced or in competition than riding alone against the clock. Cited as history of the social facilitation idea, as Alter retells it in Drunk Tank Pink, Ch. 4, not as evidence about eating; citation checked at the Classics in the History of Psychology text, 2026-10-06.
Where we use it
- Social Eating and the Cue to Stop, Why We Crave
Reliability of this reference
No persistent link has been resolved for this source yet. Full text at Classics in the History of Psychology, read 2026-10-06. No DOI exists for this 1898 paper.