This study investigated the presence and persistence of the Köhler motivation gain effect on repeated sessions of aerobic exercising using a virtually-presented partner. The Köhler effect is present when an inferior team member persists at a taxing task longer in a team situation than one would expect from knowledge of his/her individual performance. The effect is hypothesized to be most potent in conjunctive task conditions where the team's potential productivity is equal to the productivity of its least capable member. Participants (N = 58) were randomly assigned to either an individual, coactive (performance outcome was determined irrespective of their more capable partner's performance) or conjunctive condition (group performance outcome was determined by the partner who stopped riding first) where they rode with a moderately more capable virtual partner. In a 3 (conditions) x 6 (time) factorial design, participants exercised on a stationary bike for as long as they could at 65% of their maximum heart rate on 6 days over a 2-week period. Results showed those who cycled with a partner under conjunctive conditions over all sessions persisted 675.39 s longer (M = 1313.46 s) than individual controls and 127.34 s longer than those under coactive conditions. The findings demonstrate that exercising with a virtually-present partner in a conjunctive manner can improve persistence on an aerobic task that persists across multiple work trials.
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