Winning makes people more aggressive towards losers
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  Winning makes people more aggressive towards losers
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Author Topic: Winning makes people more aggressive towards losers  (Read 411 times)
Jacobtm
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« on: March 01, 2012, 10:21:25 PM »
« edited: March 01, 2012, 10:29:08 PM by Jacobtm »

Human nature is unsurprising to anyone who's spent their lives interacting with people with eyes open. Yet some people need science to show them the obvious:

A new study found that winners – those who outperformed others on a competitive task – acted more aggressively against the people they beat than the losers did against the victors.

"It seems that people have a tendency to stomp down on those they have defeated, to really rub it in," said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University.

"Losers, on the other hand, don't really act any more aggressively than normal against those who defeated them."

Bushman said this is the first study to examine whether winners or losers were more likely to act aggressively.

There were reasons to believe either side could have been more in a fighting mood, Bushman said. Losers might be the bigger aggressors, because they would be angry against those who prevented them from feeling competent. However, other research suggests that people are more aggressive when they feel powerful, as they may when they win a competition.

These results, though, suggest "losers are the ones who get the brunt of the aggression," he said...

"People were more aggressive when they were better off than when they were worse off than others," Bushman said.

Bushman said the fact that the findings were repeated in three different studies, in two different countries, suggest that there really is something about winning that makes people more aggressive.

"Losers need to watch out," he said.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-people-aggressive-defeated.html

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Napoleon
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« Reply #1 on: March 01, 2012, 10:35:11 PM »

Lol

Losers need to watch out.
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Klecly
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« Reply #2 on: March 01, 2012, 10:38:52 PM »

Bushman has too much time on his hands...
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shua
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« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2012, 10:52:43 PM »

Maybe it's because people who win care about winning. People who don't care about winning aren't going to think any less of the losers, or envy the winners.
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Marokai Backbeat
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« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2012, 10:55:38 PM »

We humans really are awful creatures sometimes.
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John Dibble
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« Reply #5 on: March 01, 2012, 10:59:14 PM »

Makes sense I suppose - the winner has established a position of dominance over the loser, so they then reinforce that dominance with increased aggression to prevent further challenge.
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Jacobtm
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« Reply #6 on: March 01, 2012, 11:57:19 PM »

Maybe it's because people who win care about winning. People who don't care about winning aren't going to think any less of the losers, or envy the winners.

The study suggested that it wasn't like that. It wasn't people without initiative vs. go-getters, it was people put in a controlled situation, with some told they had won a competition and others told they had lost.

The mere act of winning can bring out this behavior in people.
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SUSAN CRUSHBONE
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Junior Chimp
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« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2012, 05:44:56 AM »

We humans really are awful creatures sometimes.
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Vosem
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« Reply #8 on: March 02, 2012, 06:49:41 AM »

We humans really are awful creatures sometimes.

Is this a bad thing?
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Mechaman
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« Reply #9 on: March 02, 2012, 07:38:18 AM »

Oh my god winners are so horrible!  We should all just be losers because losers are nice!
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Napoleon
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« Reply #10 on: March 02, 2012, 03:05:16 PM »


Only if you're a loser.
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