In 1898 a psychologist had children crank a fishing reel as fast as they could, first alone and then beside a rival, and about half sped up when someone was racing them — the first experiment in social psychology

June 23, 2026 - 19:50

In 1898, a psychologist named Norman Triplett built a strange contraption from fishing reels to test an idea that came to him while watching bicycle racers. He noticed that cyclists seemed to ride faster when competing against others than when racing alone against the clock. To test this hunch, he had children crank a fishing reel as fast as they could, first by themselves and then next to a rival. About half of the children sped up when someone was racing them.

This simple experiment is often called the founding moment of social psychology. Textbooks present it as a clean demonstration that people perform better in the presence of others. But the real story is messier. Triplett found that some children actually slowed down when competing. Others showed no change at all. The results were inconsistent, and Triplett himself was cautious about drawing broad conclusions.

Despite the mixed data, the experiment opened a new field of study. It asked a question that had never been asked scientifically: How does the presence of other people change our behavior? Later researchers would refine the idea, showing that the effect depends on the task, the person, and the situation. But it all started with a psychologist, some fishing reels, and a hunch that turned out to be only half right.