Pyrrhic Victories: the Need for Social Status Drives Costly Competitive Behavior

Overview

Journal Front Neurosci

Date 2013 Oct 30

PMID 24167468

Citations 6

Authors

Wouter van den Bos

Philipp J M Golka

David Effelsberg

Samuel M McClure

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Competitive behavior is commonly defined as the decision to maximize one's payoffs relative to others. We argue instead that competitive drive derives from a desire for social status. We make use of a multi-player auction task in which subjects knowingly incur financial losses for the sake of winning auctions. First, we show that overbidding is increased when the task includes members of a rival out-group, suggesting that social identity is an important mediator of competitiveness. In addition, we show that the extent that individuals are willing to incur losses is related to affective responses to social comparisons but not to monetary outcomes. Second, we show that basal levels of testosterone predict overbidding, and that this effect of testosterone is mediated by affective responses to social comparisons. Based on these findings, we argue that competitive behavior should be conceptualized in terms of social motivations as opposed to just relative monetary payoffs.

Citing Articles

Achieving Status and Reducing Loneliness during the Transition to College: The Role of Entitlement, Intrasexual Competitiveness, and Dominance.

Rahal D, Fales M, Haselton M, Slavich G, Robles T Soc Dev. 2022; 31(3):568-586.

PMID: 36172201 PMC: 9512280. DOI: 10.1111/sode.12569.

The causal effect of testosterone on men's competitive behavior is moderated by basal cortisol and cues to an opponent's status: Evidence for a context-dependent dual-hormone hypothesis.

Knight E, Morales P, Christian C, Prasad S, Harbaugh W, Mehta P J Pers Soc Psychol. 2022; 123(4):693-716.

PMID: 35201818 PMC: 9901191. DOI: 10.1037/pspa0000305.

Social status strategy in early adolescent girls: Testosterone and value-based decision making.

Cardoos S, Suleiman A, Johnson M, van den Bos W, Hinshaw S, Dahl R Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2017; 81:14-21.

PMID: 28407517 PMC: 9245628. DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.03.013.

Rank among Peers during Game Competition Affects the Tendency to Make Risky Choices in Adolescent Males.

Foo J, Nagase K, Naramura-Ohno S, Yoshiuchi K, Yamamoto Y, Morita K Front Psychol. 2017; 8:16.

PMID: 28174543 PMC: 5258757. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00016.

The effect of social rank feedback on risk taking and associated reward processes in adolescent girls.

Op de Macks Z, Bunge S, Bell O, Kriegsfeld L, Kayser A, Dahl R Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2016; 12(2):240-250.

PMID: 27614768 PMC: 5390714. DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsw125.

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