1. Were there any differences in competitive orientation between the two conditions?

Answer: No, unfortunately


    Two Sample t-test

data:  mydata$pap[mydata$sess == 1] by mydata$cond[mydata$sess == 1]
t = -0.077524, df = 97, p-value = 0.9384
alternative hypothesis: true difference in means between group Control and group Competitive is not equal to 0
95 percent confidence interval:
 -0.4781281  0.4421804
sample estimates:
    mean in group Control mean in group Competitive 
                 2.805556                  2.823529

As can be seen from the output above, the t-test was nonsignificant. Specifically the t-test was t = -0.08 df = 97, p = .94

The same was true for enjoyment where the t-test was t = 0.88 df = 98, p = .38. Likewise, no differences were found for competence t = 0.23 df = 98, p = .82 pressure t = -0.01 df = 98, p = .99, and usefulness t = 0.12 df = 98, p = .91. Also, there were no differences, either in the percentage of correct responses (see Figure 2a), or in the reaction time (see Figure 2b))

Therefore, the results indicate that either our manipulation (i.e., the use of images) was not strong enough or that people who volunteer to participate in a task like this may stay immune to such messages (probably because they do not sense that their involvement in such tasks is worth entering in a competition). Of course, one more explanation could be that our hypothesis was wrong. In any case, we found no support to what we had expected.

We found however some interesting gender differences. First, aside the differences from session to session, there were gender differences in the correct responses (see Figure 3a). These differences in the percentage of correct responses concerned the first session where the difference d = -0.08 SE = 0.02 was statistically significant t = -3.20, df = 294, p = .019. With respect to the reaction time (see Figure 3b) there were differences (a) among the three sessions, (b) between males and females, and (c) an interaction which shows that males tend to outperform females in the third session (as their reaction time is lower).

Moreover, although the two conditions were not successfully implemented, there were some differences in correct responses between males and females in the competitive situation (see Figure, 4a). However, because we could not claim that the conditions were successfully induced, we cannot attribute these differences to our (unsuccessful) implementation.

Going back to the gender differences, we found no gender differences in performance approach goals (t = -0.52 df = 97, p = .60) (see Figure 5a) , enjoyment (t = 0.87 df = 98, p = .38) (see Figure 5b).

We found however gender differences in perceived competence (t = -1.99 df = 98, p = .049) (see Figure 6a) , perceived pressure (t = 2.24 df = 98, p = .028) (see Figure 6b), and perceived usefulness (t = 2.97 df = 98, p = .004) (see Figure 6c).