Stop watching and start listening! The impact of coaching and peer observation in tournaments

•Coaching improves competitive behavior.•Peers guide competitive behavior only in case of strategic uncertainty.•Information about peer behavior is detrimental in tournaments.

This paper uses experimental data to analyze how competitive behavior is influenced by coaching and peer observation. We study behavior in a sequential contest, considering information about the effort level of subjects in other contests (observation of peers) and information about the payoff-maximizing effort level (coaching) as treatment variables. Presentation of peer effort has a significant impact on the effort levels of first movers but not on second movers’ effort levels. The decisions of second movers were positively influenced by coaching when this information was presented alone; however, when coaching was presented in combination with peer observation, this effect decreased.