Previous studies have revealed that past experience shared by the members of a group can uniformly increase or decrease the collective efficacy. However, it remains unknown how appraisal formation processes occur within an athletic team in which each member of varying ability appraises collective efficacy from the perspective of shared past experience. The purpose of this study was to examine the processes related to appraisal of collective efficacy in terms of the task-related abilities of individual members. The participants, 75 healthy males, were assigned to triads. The triads were instructed to cover a combined distance of 2,000 m as quickly as possible on a bicycle. The comparative task-related abilities of the participants were manipulated through false feedback before the task. The results revealed that participants with superior condition only appraised collective efficacy based on their own potential contribution, and that collective efficacy was associated with individual effort during the task. These results could be interpreted in the light of instrumentality, which is an element of the Collective Effort Model (Karau & Williams, 1993).

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