Competing with visible and invisible competitors in flanker tasks

We conducted 2 studies to investigate whether or not individuals consider a task to be competitive even when their competitors are imagined. We used a 2-choice reaction time task with compatible and incompatible flankers, which was completed by 64 university undergraduates (M_age = 21.4 years; range: 19–23 years). In Study 1, participants completed their task in both individual and competitive conditions. In Study 2, participants took turns to compete with the experimenter side by side and then in a different room. Results indicated that the joint flanker effect occurred, whether or not the competitor was visible or invisible. These findings confirm earlier results that interdependency affects people’s behavior even in a competitive context, and promote understanding of the basic mechanism underlying competitive action.