Incentive

Context (archaeology)

Control (management)

Cognitive psychology

Philosophy

Biology

Goal setting

Microeconomics

Social psychology

Economics

Set (abstract data type)

Computer science

Business

Paleontology

Process management

Psychology

Goal pursuit

Dilemma

Goal orientation

Applied psychology

Epistemology

Artificial intelligence

Team effectiveness

Programming language

Knowledge management

Team composition

Applied Psychology

The effect of a context‐specific prime for cooperation on goal commitment and team performance were examined. In the first experiment, the participants ( n = 139) performed the Lost on the Moon simulation (Hall &amp; Watson, 1970) individually and as a team ( n = 50). The teams were randomly assigned to a condition where they were assigned the same goal. They were then primed ( n = 23) through a photograph of cooperation or to the control condition ( n = 27). Consistent with NASA’s directions for performing the simulation, performance was measured by how well a team performed relative to the answers of experts, namely, staff at NASA. The results showed that a primed behavioural goal to cooperate has a positive effect on team performance. These results were replicated in a second and third experiment involving a social dilemma where both a pro‐social, group‐centric goal and a pro‐self, egocentric goal could be self‐set for the amount of points to make. Thus the positive effect of a goal primed for cooperation on a team’s performance was shown to be robust even when there was an explicit mixture of cooperative and competitive incentives. This finding was replicated in a third experiment with actual money. Consistent with goal setting theory, commitment to the team’s goal moderated the primed goal‐performance relationship.

The Effect of a Context‐Specific Primed Goal on Goal Commitment and Team Performance