(credit: Carol Highsmith/Library of Congress)
Competition is a significant part of social interaction in the workplace, on the sports field, and in recreational settings. How we respond to that competition is often portrayed as saying a lot about our character. Being branded as a sore loser at a company picnic or after a game night among friends can carry over into relationships. Children are encouraged to play sports as a way to teach them to work in teams and get experience with winning and losing.
A new study published in PNAS, however, suggests that winning a competition may end up making us behave dishonestly, adding further nuance to the paradigm of the “good sport” and the “sore loser.” The work indicates that winners were more likely to steal money from peers during subsequent interactions, perhaps due to feelings of entitlement. While previous studies have shown that honesty and dishonesty can influence the odds of winning a competition, this study presents new data suggesting that these influences go both ways.
The work started by having some participants play in an object recall contest against other people. Afterward, the winners were more likely to dishonestly claim money from their peers in a dice-rolling, money-focused task. The same held true for participants who were simply asked to recall a time when they had won a competition with other people.
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