Winning isn't everything: Guilt proneness and competitive vs. non-competitive motivation.

Autor: Haran U; Department of Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel., Van Dijk D; Department of Health Policy and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel., Barina M; Department of Health Policy and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel., Krief M; Department of Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel., Rosenzweig S; Department of Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Journal of personality [J Pers] 2024 Apr; Vol. 92 (2), pp. 457-479. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Apr 01.
DOI: 10.1111/jopy.12834
Abstrakt: Objective: Guilt proneness is associated with both high motivation to succeed and enhanced concern for others. However, in competition, achieving success requires harming others' interests, which demotivates guilt-prone individuals. Given the prevalence of competition in social and professional life, we examine the relation between guilt proneness, general motivation, and competitive motivation.
Method: Two experiments and two laboratory studies (N = 1735) measured guilt proneness, general motivation, and competitive motivation, and their effects on competitive preferences and choices. Study settings included students' choice of playing a game individually vs. competitively (Study 1), physicians' likelihood to seek residency in medical fields characterized by high competitiveness (Study 2), amateur athletes' preferences between inclusive and win-oriented team strategies (Study 3), and online workers' evaluations of a hypothetical scenario (Study 4).
Results: Guilt proneness was related positively to general motivation, but negatively to competitive motivation. Guilt proneness, indirectly through lower competitive motivation, predicted a lower likelihood of pursuing competitive paths and preference for non-competitive strategies. Emphasizing prosocial aspects of competitiveness attenuated these effects.
Conclusions: Guilt proneness is related to high general motivation but to a lower desire to win. Guilt-prone individuals strive for excellence, but through non-competitive paths, whereas people with lower guilt proneness prefer competing.
(© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Personality published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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