Sport science has revealed that subtle visual, olfactory or acoustic stimuli may affect athletic performance and decision-making of athletes, coaches and referees. These stimuli typically exert their influence without conscious intention or awareness. In this regard, research showed that among others uniform color, the sound volume of crowd noise, or rather odorous substances may have an impact on athletes’/coaches’/referees’ self-efficacy, their decisions, goal setting or rather their performance in general. However, the generalizability and effect sizes of these studies turned out to be low. Nonetheless, they showed potential in helping to understand the underlying cognitive mechanism of decision-making/athletic performance and how external cues may unconsciously affect these processes.

This research project investigates the circumstances and characteristics of such unconsciously driven impact on decision making and athletic performance.  The findings may contribute to better understand the underlying processes of decision making in sports of athletes/coaches/referees.