Lay beliefs about savouring and performance in elite sport

Athletes may be able to optimize their experiences in sport by engaging in savouring – that is, by attempting to maintain, enhance, or prolong their enjoyment of positive experiences. However, it is unclear if athletes believe that there are performance benefits associated with savouring good times in sport. The purpose of this research was to study the lay beliefs that athletes have about the connection between savouring and elite sport performance. We collected data online from 326 sport participants via Prolific. Participants were randomly assigned to answer questions from the Savoring Beliefs Inventory in a way that they thought either the most successful, least successful, or average elite athlete would answer them. A one-way ANOVA showed that estimated levels of savouring differed between the three conditions, F (2, 323) = 19.15, p < .001, η;2 = .106. Post-hoc tests indicated that estimated levels of savouring in the least successful condition were significantly lower than those in both the most successful and average conditions, which did not significantly differ from each other. Finding the lowest levels of savouring with the least successful condition likely reflects the impression that less successful elite athletes have few positive experiences to savour. But this same logic cannot explain why predicted levels of savouring among the most successful elite athletes, despite presumably having ample positive experiences that could be savoured, were not significantly different than savouring among average elite athletes. Future research is thus needed to continue exploring athletes’ beliefs about the effects of savouring in sport.