Want to take your basketball game to the next level? Looking to get an edge over your opponent on the court?

Dwell upon your death.

That's the highly unexpected conclusion of two studies out of the University of Arizona, published in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology.

Improved performance on the basketball court (and likely in other athletic venues) is the result of a subconscious effort to boost self-esteem, the researchers say. That, in turn, is a protective buffer against fear of death, according to psychology's “terror management” theory.

"Terror management theory talks about striving for self-esteem and why we want to accomplish things in our lives and be successful," said UA psychology doctoral student Uri Lifshin, co-lead investigator of the research. "Everybody has their own thing in which they invest that is their legacy and symbolic immortality."

If we didn't have this self-esteem-fueled coping system, we would be living in constant fear of our inevitable demise.

"Your subconscious tries to find ways to defeat death, to make death not a problem, and the solution is self-esteem," Lifshin said. "Self-esteem gives you a feeling that you're part of something bigger, that you have a chance for immortality, that you have meaning, that you're not just a sack of meat."

In the first study, the researchers gathered together 31 otherwise sacks of meat who enjoyed playing basketball and cared about their performance in the sport. Their performances in one-on-one games of hoop were gauged, and then they were asked to fill out questionnaires. One set of questions prompted half the participants to think about death and their mortality, and the control group was given questions about basketball. Those asked about death improved their personal performance in the second game by 40 percent, while those asked about basketball saw no change in performance.

"When we're threatened with death, we're motivated to regain that protective sense of self-esteem, and when you like basketball and you're out on the basketball court, winning and performing well is the ultimate way to gain self-esteem," Lifshin said.

In a second test, participants in a one-minute basket shooting challenge performed 30 percent better – taking more shots, making more shots – when Lifshin gave each person the 30-second description of the challenge while wearing a skull-emblazoned T-shirt. For the control group, the T-shirt was covered by a jacket.

Although the study was conducted on a basketball court, the researchers saw no reason why the technique would not work just as well for other sports. Or even outside of sports.

"This is a potentially untapped way to motivate athletes but also perhaps to motivate people in other realms," said Colin Zestcott, the other lead investigator. "Outside of sports, we think that this has implications for a range of different performance-related tasks, like people's jobs, so we're excited about the future of this research."

Roman emperors were hailed by gladiators with the famous greeting, “We who are about to die, salute you!” Maybe the Romans knew something about inspiring athletes that we are only now coming to understand.