Setting goals may help people do better at sport, and process goals help most

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   The 27 studies included 1,764 people: 1,077 adults and 684 people under 18. There were 794 women, 879 men and 91 whose sex was not reported.

2. 02

   What they did

   Each study set goals for a sports task, such as darts, golf putting or swimming. It compared that with no goal or a do-your-best instruction. Most studies were one session in a lab, and others ran for several sessions or a season.

3. 03

   What happened

   Setting goals helped people do better overall, and process goals, which focus on what you do in a skill, helped most. Learning goals worked no better than having no goal at all. The review used only published studies, which probably made the effects look bigger, and it did not test for missing studies.

What the review found

1. Helped

   Setting goals helped people do better at sport than having no goal or being told to do their best.

   • Action: Set a specific goaltested

   Pooled analysis of 27 studies with 1,764 people · vs people with no goal or told to do their best · behaviour was recorded · ⚠ most studies had serious flaws; the studies disagreed a lot; mixes trials with other kinds of study

2. Helped

   Process goals, which focus on what you do in a skill, helped people do better than having no goal.

   • Action: Set a specific goaltested

   Pooled analysis of 9 studies · vs people with no goal or told to do their best · behaviour was recorded · ⚠ most studies had serious flaws; results look too good to be true; mixes trials with other kinds of study

3. Helped

   Performance goals helped people do better at sport than having no goal or being told to do their best.

   • Action: Set a specific goaltested

   Pooled analysis of 16 studies · vs people with no goal or told to do their best · behaviour was recorded · ⚠ most studies had serious flaws; mixes trials with other kinds of study

4. No difference

   Learning goals worked no better than having no goal at all.

   • Action: Aim to learn, not to impresstested

   Pooled analysis of 6 studies · vs people with no goal or told to do their best · behaviour was recorded · ⚠ most studies had serious flaws; mixes trials with other kinds of study

Source