Members of swimming relays often show effort gains in relays (i.e., more effort and faster swimming times in the relay vs. the individual competition). The weakest relay members typically exhibit the most pronounced effort gains. However, the underlying psychological processes are unclear. Prior research suggests social comparisons with stronger fellow relay members, perceived social indispensability, or a combination of both processes as plausible mediators. In Study 1, using linear mixed model and regression analyses on N = 239 observations from 222 elite U.S. college swimmers, we found empirical support only for the social indispensability hypothesis. Study 2, a survey among N = 46 German national team swimmers, substantiated the results, because the athletes most often mentioned processes related to social indispensability as motivating them. Our findings offer theoretical conclusions for expectancy × value models on team member effort expenditure and practical implications for coaching and selecting the weakest members for swimming relays.

中文翻译：

---

社会比较、社会不可或缺，还是两者兼而有之？关于游泳接力赛努力收益背后的心理机制。


游泳接力赛的成员通常在接力赛中表现出努力增加（即与个人比赛相比，接力赛中付出更多的努力和更快的游泳时间）。最弱的接力成员通常表现出最明显的努力增长。然而，潜在的心理过程尚不清楚。先前的研究表明，与更强大的接力成员进行社会比较，认为社会不可或缺，或将这两个过程结合起来作为合理的中介。在研究 1 中，使用线性混合模型和对 239 名美国精英大学游泳运动员的 N = 222 次观察结果的回归分析，我们发现仅对社会不可或缺性假说的经验支持。研究 2 是对 N = 46 名德国国家队游泳运动员的调查，证实了结果，因为运动员最常提到与社会不可或缺性相关的过程作为激励他们的动力。我们的研究结果为团队成员努力支出的期望×价值模型以及指导和选择最弱成员进行游泳接力的实际意义提供了理论结论。