Why Competition is not as Beneficial for Society as People Might Think
I live in a suburban town where it is guaranteed that I will experience competition at some point in my everyday life. This is a societal norm when you live in a town with one of the best schools in the state, with students receiving high scores on tests, and getting accepted into top colleges in the country. The school has received many prestigious awards for both academics and extracurricular activities and the students are considered to be very competitive. These things allow for a unique high school experience that is filled with competition.
Although you are given the best educational opportunities, school is one of many examples in society where competition does not always have positive effects on people.
Throughout my life, I have been a competitive person, receiving strong grades in school and participating in sports. I have always considered competition as an important and beneficial part of my life. When I did research on this topic, I expected confirmation for my ideas with sources describing how competition improves productivity and motivates people. However, I was surprised to find articles discussing whether America has become too competitive. I believe that if people do not acknowledge the negative effects that can occur due to competition, these effects will continue to grow and surpass the positive effects, ultimately resulting in competition being detrimental to society.
America has become the most competitive country in the world and this has allowed us to reach the top in technological innovation and become the financial center of the world.
However, when you look into this issue at a deeper level, we can see that activities that people used to do to stimulate their intellect or just for fun have now been turned into competition, which suggests a shift in the values of our society. Growing up, I was involved in competition everyday and it gave me a rush of excitement, but over the years everything has turned into competition. I had a previous perception that competition is only beneficial to society, but after doing research on the topic, I have changed my view because competition can result in a negative change in the ideals of our society.
For example, the increased stress that people feel to do well in competition as pressure rises takes the fun out of the activity itself. Once it reaches this point, it does not make sense to continue competing because it is no longer making you happy as it should be. I have seen this firsthand in my own life. One of my friends recently quit playing baseball because he did not want to handle the stress of the games. Although he is very good and would be successful in competition, the stress overtook the fun of the game and he did not want to continue to feel the burden of the stress. This was a smart decision by him as he can now focus on something that will give him enjoyment rather than something that he was stressed about everyday.
Competitive TV shows continue to increase in popularity, which raises the question of whether people are getting satisfaction out of watching people compete rather than taking part in these activities themselves. This move towards increased competitiveness shows a change in the representation of American ideals. Beating other people has become an obsession on a national scale and some people are willing to go too far to achieve this. For example, many people these days are willing to cheat in order to be successful in competition. The reason students are caught for cheating in school are because of the pressure that they feel to get good grades as the competition to get into a good college continues to get tougher.
The role of competition continues to change in the world, but the issues we face do not. Competition is intertwined with the basic need for human survival. This is why people are motivated to participate in competition when it comes to pro-social causes. An example of this is when people donate money to see a teacher get pied in the face. Although many people might donate to the cause at that time, once the teacher gets pied in the face, it is more than likely that the amount of money being donated will experience a decrease. People understand that pro-social causes are important in order to survive, which is why they are more inclined to participate in competition. This extrinsic incentive is not good for society because it does not find a long term solution for the problem and sends the message that it is only needed for a short period of time.
Without an intrinsic incentive that can only be found through a person’s own conscience, it is impossible for the issues to be solved in the long term. Extrinsic incentives produced from competition only last in the short term. The teacher getting pied in the face would be the extrinsic incentive. In anticipation of this incentive, people are excited and raise the money, but it does not solve the long term problem as there isn’t much motivation past this extrinsic incentive. According to Psychology Today, if the level of competition continues to increase when it comes to pro-social causes, then people will forget about the actual cause and start to focus on the competition that is being used as an incentive. This shows how people lose sight of the ultimate goal as they become more focused on competing with others.
It is evident that competition helps people in the short term, but it is also clear that we are not finding ourselves and long term solutions through this method. This can be seen through the “Do it in the Dark” campaign every year at Princeton. The college that is able to conserve the most energy by the end of the competition period wins. This competition displays great change in energy consumption as people conserve more energy. However, as soon as the competition period ends, people go back to consuming the same amount of energy that they did before the competition period. This shows that people were most likely conserving energy solely for the competition rather than thinking about the positive effects if they continued to conserve energy. Competition removes intrinsic competition from the picture, which is not good because it supports morality. As intrinsic motivation is crowded out by extrinsic motivation, it results in people doing something for their own personal gain rather than for the cause that the competition is being held for.
Data from Princeton “Do it in the Dark” Campaign
According to Psychology Today, competition is not the only force in nature that affects humans. It is met by an opposite force of cooperation and people often forget that humanity has made it this far with cooperation as well as competition. It is essential that we stress the importance of cooperation, so that people do not lose sight like they do when competing.
Competition does allow for people to feel more motivated. It is human nature to want to experience success, so people are more inclined to take part in competition to prove that they can be successful. This can result in an increase in productivity in society. However, the side that gets overlooked is the fact that competition can bring the worst behavior out of people. One of these effects is the creation of a “loser”. Although, I do not believe it is logical to give everyone trophies no matter how they perform in a competition, I also do not believe that the taunting and teasing that comes with losing in competition is good for a person’s self esteem. It is important that we find a happy medium between these two sides. Giving everyone participation trophies does not instill the proper values in children as they lose a competitive edge that is necessary to survive in the world. However, labeling someone as a loser, can damage a person’s self esteem to the point of which they do not feel confident enough to participate in future competitions.
According to an article from Delta College, competition can also result in an “anything to win” mentality. This can be good in sports because of the need to win as many games as possible, but outside of sports it can result in people making bad decisions to try to reach the top. With this mentality, people hurt others and are willing to do anything just to reach the top of the competition. This shows how competition can result in a selfish attitude that only benefits yourself without thinking about people around you. This mentality can result in the mindset that other people are objects and can make you seem emotionless. Just the fact that competition can affect your mentality that negatively shows that it does not have all positive effects. Competition does benefit people in everyday life, but if people continue to ignore the negative effects as they have, then it can result in problems such as changes in mentality.
Competition is beneficial in teaching you important values for life such as perseverance. It is important to persevere in life and continue to fight for your goals, so that you will be able to achieve them one day. However, taking this idea too far can result in unending restlessness in a person. There is no end point for the motivation to compete against others. Once you are taught to be successful in competition, it results in an unending cycle of working to try to be successful in competition. This results in no free time and can damage relationships as you do not spend as much time with people in your life. This is because you are so focused on trying to improve your craft and reach the top of the competition that you are taking away time that you would normally spend with other people.
As I look at all of this information, I try to imagine a world where we do not have any competition. Competition is such a big part of my life in both school and sports, but it does take up lots of free time and can prevent you from spending time with people. However, it is such an important part of my life that has taught me so many important values that I cannot imagine a time where I do not have any competition in my life. If this happened, I would not be able to gain the same experience for the real world that I would be able to if I continued to partake in competition.
This is why we should think about combining cooperation and competition rather than going overboard on one of them. Just as with all pairs of opposite forces, it is important to find a balance between the two forces. Both of these things can be seen in everyone’s life. It is just a matter of how much it affects your life. Competition is not going anywhere. It can be seen in social interactions, economics, sports, school, and many other things that we experience in our daily lives. It also does not have purely negative effects that slow down people. In fact, it has many positive effects when it is at a healthy level and combined with cooperation.
If we combine competition and cooperation, it can result in the best combination to increase productivity because it allows for two people to combine their skills as well as being pushed to beat other people. The future of our country is dependent on whether people can figure out a balance between these two reactions before it gets too far and the negative effects take over and outweigh the positive effects. If this happens, competition will take over as the sole motivation and people will no longer be influenced by intrinsic incentive. The ideals of the country are built upon morality and relying on extrinsic incentive does not represent these ideals.
Works Cited
Kovis, Donald. “The Invidious Nature of Competition.” San Joaquin Delta College, 5 Mar. 2012, www.deltacollege.edu/student-life/student-media/delta-winds/2012-table-contents/invidious-nature-competition. Accessed 20 Mar. 2019.
Plowman, N. “Positive and Negative Competition: Influences on Project Team Success.” Bright Hub Project Management, BRIGHTHUBPM.COM, www.brighthubpm.com/resource-management/59735-the-differences-between-positive-and-negative-competition/. Accessed 20 Mar. 2019.
Taylor, Jim. “Has American Become Too Competitive?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 2 Apr. 2013, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-prime/201304/has-america-become-too-competitive. Accessed 20 Mar. 2019.
Van Der Linden, Sander. “The Psychology of Competition.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 24 June 2015, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/socially-relevant/201506/the-psychology-competition. Accessed 20 Mar. 2019.
White, Zachary. “Side Effects of Competition.” Huddol Events, Huddol.com, 31 Oct. 2016, events.huddol.com/side-effects-competition/. Accessed 20 Mar. 2019.
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