Reference-dependent effort ("bunching" around a target) [1] is probably the closest thing. The existing high score was acting as everyone's reference point. A

Reference-dependent effort ("bunching" around a target) [1] is probably the closest thing. The existing high score was acting as everyone's reference point. Anchoring [2] is the more general cognitive version. [1] https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w20343/w20343.pdf https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w20343/w203... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring_effect