Does Random Placement to Central Positions Improve Performance? Centre Effects in the Classroom and the Olympics

A laboratory experiment and two field experiments, in two different contexts, provide evidence that central positions, assigned at random, improve performance. Study 1 identifies students’ schemas about classroom positions. Study 2 examines performance in seven MBA courses and finds that students randomly pre-assigned to seats in the centre performed better on their examinations and overall. Study 3 shows that athletes assigned at random to center lanes in 2000-2012 Olympics 100-meter race ranked better, had higher likelihood of progression to the next round, and raced more rounds. Implications for the routes through which central position affects performance, including self-signaling, are discussed.

Citation:

Priya Raghubir, Ana Valenzuela, and Ajay Abraham (2018) ,"Does Random Placement to Central Positions Improve Performance? Centre Effects in the Classroom and the Olympics", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 11, eds. Maggie Geuens, Mario Pandelaere, and Michel Tuan Pham, Iris Vermeir, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 1-8.