A cross-cultural analysis of positive illusions and sport performance levels in American, Croatian, and Norwegian basketball players.

The present study examined the degree to which positive illusion is associated with sport performance in basketball players among 3 different cultures: The United States of America, Croatia, and Norway. Positive illusion is a cognitive characteristic that is common in mentally healthy individuals, and becomes especially important in the athletic arena. The model tested in this study depicts the level of positive illusion as the main predictor variable and the performance of the basketball players as the criterion variable. The Positive Illusion Sports Scale was used to measure the predictor variable while The Basketball Evaluation System was used to measure the criterion variable. Participants were 239 competitive male basketball players, 122 from USA, 57 from Croatia and 60 from Norway. Results showed that positive illusion was directly (positively) related to actual success and that these relationships were statistically significant and consistent with positive illusion as a theoretical construct for predicting behavior and success.