Researchers have found that people who win competitions are likelier to cheat or be dishonest in the future.
In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Ben-Gurion University said that it's typical for some business executives and politicians to engage in unethical behavior to get ahead, but their work was focused on determining who between winners and losers were likelier to exhibit dishonesty after a competition.
"Although we know much about contestants' behavior before and during competitions, we know little about contestants' behavior after the competition has ended," said the researchers.
Five experiments involving students in Israel were conducted by the researchers. The first two showed that winning competitions increases the chances of winners stealing money from their losing counterparts in subsequent unrelated tasks. While experiments 3a and 3b found that this unethical behavior only persists when winning translates to being better than others and not when success is a matter of chance or the accomplishment of a personal goal.
The last experiment was a post-competition survey. It hinted that those who won gained a sense of entitlement after beating their opponents in an initial competition, which made it likelier for them to cheat in the next contest.
According to their findings, the researchers suggested that how honest an individual is depends on how they define success.
"When success is measured by social comparison, as is the case when winning a competition, dishonesty increases," said Amos Schurr, one of the authors of the study. Otherwise, dishonesty decreases.
According to the researchers, it is hard to overemphasize the importance that competition brings to furthering technological progress, economic growth, social mobility, wealth creation and greater equality. However, it is important as well that the role competition plays in creating censurable conduct be recognized.
The study was supported by the Ben-Guiron University of the Negev, the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management, the Israel Science Foundation, and the Planning and Budgeting Committee's I-CORE program.
Photo: Steven Lilley | Flickr
