More Than Just a Game: The Effects of Social Comparison in Sporting Competition
How can we help athletes use it to their advantage?
Competitive sports are more than “just a game.” Audiences demand the highest performance, and anything less is considered failure.
Whether it’s a soccer match at Sunday league or a heat of a national championship track race, athletes are naturally pitted against those around them. As they train tirelessly towards their goals, the results of their labor are put on a higher pedestal by those around them. Coaches, peers, parents, fans; there arises not a hope for athletes to beat others and perform at the highest standard at all times, but an expectation. This has bred a universal athletic culture of excessive social pressure to prevail, leading to the unfortunate downfall of many athletes early on in their careers. As these pressures mount, social comparison, or the process of thinking about information about one or more other people in relation to themself, becomes commonplace (Wood, 1996).
But what long-term effects does comparison during competition have on athletes? In this article, we’ll look at the various ways that social comparison presents itself in competitive athletics, as well as the effects it can have on self-perception and self-esteem in the long-term.
Turn “You vs. Them” into “You vs. You”
In many popular sports like tennis and badminton, it’s just you and your opponent; it can feel enchanting but isolating at the same time. There’s no one to blame for your mishaps and blunders but yourself. This type of environment breeds some of the most fierce and lively competition in all of athletics, but it also has its negatives.
In a one-on-one format, athletes are forced to make their own decisions over the course of a match or game. Athletes’ confidence decreases with every poor decision made during a game but the greatest impact comes when they make a series of poor decisions that lead to a loss. This series of events can instantly put the image in an athlete’s mind that they’re inferior to their opponent(s) and don’t deserve to succeed (Bardel et al., 2010). This is a dangerous mindset to have, as it can lead to cascading effects if losses continue. The effect of these losses is amplified when a player loses to an opponent who they believe is inferior to them or is ranked lower, also known as downward comparison. However, this same principle can be applied to the converse: when athletes perform above their expectations. If an athlete expects to lose versus a presumably more skilled opponent, this gives them an instant confidence and self-esteem boost, also known as upward comparison. Similar to the feelings of inferiority that can result from downward comparison, this feeling of accomplishment can carry on to further competition and help athletes perform to the best of their ability. Although both of these phenomena can potentially occur amidst competition, the former is far more likely in athletes due to the tendency for athletes to be critical of themselves at higher levels of competition, and the aforementioned pressure to succeed among the athletic community as a whole (Bardel et al. 2010).
These mental deviances due to results can be controlled, however. By putting themselves in the right headspace prior to a competition or match, athletes can better prepare themselves for the results; no matter victory or defeat. Instead of allowing past results to sway their mentality and expectations going into competition, athletes should aim to be “level-headed” and instead focus on tackling smaller victories to slowly gain confidence over the course of competition. These strategies will not only help athletes succeed more often and make significant progress over the course of their careers, but also prevent them from losing their matches before they even begin.
“In union, there is strength”
One of the best parts of team sports is the morale and relationships you build with your compatriots; you grow alongside them and learn to stick together through collective triumph and defeat. But what happens when some perform better than others? It disrupts the harmony of the team, and resentment and jealousy build. A broken team isn’t much of a team at all, and can hurt the health and performance of its members.
These effects can be predicted using a phenomenon known as the Big Fish, Little Pond Effect; it claims that self-concept is positively predicted by one’s own achievement, but negatively predicted by others’ achievement (Marsh, 1994). This phenomenon is particularly applicable within this context of team dynamics as some teammates progress faster or slower than others around them, leading to comparisons. For example, a more skilled athlete on a bigger, more talented team could perform worse than a less skilled athlete on a smaller, less talented team solely because of the comparisons they make to those around them. This is because, although the former is more skilled, they have limited their own capabilities by comparing themselves to their talented teammates, preventing them from achieving their true potential. The effects that these comparisons have on the athlete’s self-esteem and confidence can directly affect their performance. Unfortunately, the cutthroat nature of these highly competitive environments exacerbate the effects of the Big Fish, Little Pond Effect, forcing athletes to reassess their abilities, leading to an overall decrease in self-esteem and positive self-perceptions (Diel et al., 2021).
However, these detrimental effects can be moderated through the use of the right coaching techniques. Studies have shown that many athletes gain satisfaction and motivation boosts from individual performance criteria such as personal bests and individual performances as opposed to team-oriented results (Diel et al. 2021). A shift from the traditional team-oriented feedback can help alleviate some of the individual pressures that come from members of a team feeling as if they have to “perform for their team.” This change in coaching approach can help individual athletes perform better, which in turn increases the chances of success for the team as a whole. In addition to the coaching approach, teammates can also make an effort to engage in bonding exercises and activities that lessen the tension and tendency for members to see their teammates as competition. (Diel et al. 2021).
Helping Out
The common social comparison that athletes make during sporting competition can not only have a long-lasting effect on their self-esteem and self-perception, but also their physical health. These factors over the course of a training period culminate in eventual athlete burnout, a psychological syndrome marked by dimensions of emotional and physical exhaustion and reduced sense of accomplishment (Raedeke, 1997; Raedeke & Smith, 2001, 2009).
As athletes improve and rise the ranks of competition, their desire to “be the best” intensifies, and so too does the tendency to compare. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen, this tendency can prove disastrous for many athletes, leading to cascading physical and mental decline. But just as comparisons to those that perform better than you can bring you down, comparisons in other directions can do the inverse. For example, comparing your abilities to others that are not as skilled as you can help improve your confidence and self-esteem, and motivate you to continue to improve.
Thus, this tendency for comparison can actually be harnessed for benefit when athletes are guided properly by their coaches, parents, and peers. From the beginning of an athlete’s career, coaches play a positive role in facilitating an athlete’s transition from recreational sport into elite sport (Baxter-Jones & Maffulli, 2003; Pummell et al., 2008). As a result, the positive presence of a coach can create an atmosphere that motivates athletes to work harder and perform better. Conversely, coaches who scold athletes and provide negative feedback have shown to deter athletes’ confidence and performance both in the short and long term (Bruner et al., 2008). So the presence of a positive coaching influence is highly important in allowing athletes to maintain their performance, mental health, and physical health over the course of their careers.
But coaches are only one part of the equation. Although athletes are tirelessly committed to their sports, they also spend a majority of their time at home, surrounded by family. Just as coaches’ support during competition and practice can have an effect on the athletes’ personal life, the opposite is also true; athletes who have positively oriented personal lives tend to be more successful in the sport aspect of their lives. Thus, similar to athletes’ relationship with coaches, positive perception of parent support is strongly correlated with higher athlete motivation and performance (Ullrich-French and Smith, 2006). More specifically, research conducted by Pummel and others suggests that both emotional (support after setbacks) and tangible (time, transportation, money) services provided by parents to athletes over the course of their careers causes a significant boost in athletes’ motivation and perception of their potential.
It’s important to employ these support systems in harmony to ensure that athletes’ gain the most benefit and enjoyment from their competition. Furthermore, when it comes to long-term athletic careers, parents and coaches alike must acknowledge that their support must change as the athletes’ psychological patterns change. Tailoring support techniques with specific athletes’ stressors and psychology is the key to providing the most effective support for any given athlete.
In all types of sporting competition, athletes hold themselves to the highest standard possible—it’s what brings some of the most entertaining and fierce competition out there. But this competition comes with some negative side effects that can limit the athletes in the long run. As coaches, teammates, and family members of athletes, we must support our athletes physically, mentally, and emotionally through victory and defeat so that they can reach their full potential, and give themselves a fighting chance at success.