Effects of social support on performance outputs and perceived difficulty during physical exercise

Perceptions of social support influence adaptive self-regulatory processes that maintain health, produce feelings, and motivate behavior. Although associations between sociality and health are increasingly well-understood, there is little systematic research into the effects of social support on fatigue, physical discomfort, exertion, and output regulation in physical activity. We conducted an experimental study to investigate the effect of social support on performance and perceived difficulty in a handgrip force task while controlling for audience and reputational factors. Effects were compared with those of another established psychogenic performance enhancer (a placebo ergogenic supplement). During handgrip trials over varying levels of objective difficulty, participants viewed photographs of a support figure or stranger while in a placebo or control condition. Results revealed a significant main effect of the social support cue on handgrip performance outputs, and a significant interaction with objective trial difficulty – relative to the stranger cue, the support-figure cue significantly increased handgrip performance outputs and the effect was larger in more objectively difficult trials. Moreover, despite producing greater handgrip outputs, participants perceived trials to be significantly less difficult in the social support condition. Though there was a non-significant main effect of placebo (vs. control) on performance outputs, participants perceived trials in the placebo condition to be significantly less difficult. The research contributes new evidence and theory on the role of perceived social support – an important (energetic) resource – in human performance and motivates further enquiry into how cues to support alter perceived effort and performance outputs in strenuous physical challenges.