J Centurion Cabral, Calebe Mattos Garcia, Maiara Solano, Rosa Maria Martins de Almeida
Competitive interactions have important effects on human emotions. Both victory and defeat can evoke a wide range of emotional reactions, including joy, pride, anger, fear, sadness and shame. However, little is known about what determines this variety of contestants' affective responses. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of competitive asymmetry, a common and ecologically relevant feature of animal conflicts, on human emotional responses to winning or losing a contest. To test this hypothesis, we conducted two experiments, the first with high school students ( n = 331) and the second with young athletes ( n = 73), in which we manipulated the outcomes of successive matches in a non-athletic competition...
December 29, 2022: Journal of General Psychology