For many years, social psychologists believed that competition and cooperation were just as antagonistic as evil and good. Now it turns out that one does not exclude the other. Competition is much more common than we tend to think.
Competition covers not only politics and economics. We compete from about two and a half years old until the end of our lives: at school, at work, in love, family, and even hobbies … Competition can be collaborative, or it can be destructive to relationships.
And a lot here depends not so much on personal qualities and the specific conditions in which it unfolds, but also on the type of culture — this is the conclusion my colleagues and I came to while working as part of a large international project to study the stereotypes of perception of competition. In particular, we compared the situation in three very different countries: Japan, Canada and Hungary.
As a result of a survey of university students, it turned out that their understanding of the meaning of competition is fundamentally different. So, in Japan, its goal is to work on yourself, your own growth and development. Moreover, for the Japanese, this is two to three times more important than for Hungarian and Canadian students. The other is perceived as a partner and a tool for self-improvement, and the focus is on the «I». As one student wrote, “competition that benefits both parties is important because it can increase our competence and develop our human qualities, and competition solely for the sake of winning spoils people.”
The Happy Competitor is able to handle both defeat and victory without envy, apathy, gloating, or guilt.
Canadians see the meaning of competition in strengthening their own motivation. The other is perceived by them only as a rival, and the focus is on personal victory and achievement of the goal.
Finally, in post-socialist Hungary (as, perhaps, in Russia), competition is seen as a tool of social selection, designed to distinguish successful people from losers. Collaborative relationships with competitors are almost impossible, because the worse the other performs, the better for us.
Knowing that competition can be healthy and positive, I would define a “happy competitor” as follows: he is focused on self-improvement and self-development, is fair and honest in relation to the opponent and is able to cooperate with him. And he knows how to cope with both victories and defeats, without experiencing envy, gloating, guilt and apathy.