“Members of a group or team will work harder when they’re competing against a group with lower status than when pitted against a more highly ranked group, according to a new study.
The results run contrary to the common belief that underdogs have more motivation because they have the chance to “knock the higher-status group down a peg,” said Robert Lount, co-author of the study and assistant professor of management and human resources at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business.
“We found over and over again across multiple studies that people worked about 30 percent harder when their group was competing against a lower-status group,” Lount said.”
Read more at Science Daily (thanks, ReliegiousMarie)
"
that’s mean. you learn more when you fight something bigger than yourself
Well, that is sort of obvious isn’t it? That’s why people prefer the underdog position. Nothing to lose, everything to gain. It relieves a lot of pressure prior to a competition. Makes someone play better.
Sounds right to me, losing to a lower status team would be embarassing so you NEED to beat them to keep your higher status.
When facing someone way better than you, there’s a tendency to accept that they’re probably going to win..
Visualizations often encourage you to believe that you are already in a desired situation. So this could be part of their secret. If you believe you are already the best then you would actually try harder…
Makes sense to me. The only reason I ever tried in some classes is because I refused to have a lower grade, or worse work than the nyaffs I was “up against”. When I was in higher-up classes, with people as, or more intelligent than me? I didn’t care nearly as much. Was like that in high school, still like that in college.
But if an underdog tries and does so well to get promoted what about the next underdog? Is that the whole point to get a single verticle line of hierarchical achievers?
Belief is the cause, the powerful side of our creativity carries out the instructions our belief gives it.
If we beleive we will win then we will focus on carrying out simple tasks to bring this belief into reality, if our fear disguises our belief in ourselves we will bring about that which makes us afraid.
Therefore any focussed individual can bring about any outcome they choose.
What is an underdog? Only if they feel like an underdog theirselves ofcourse .. some like/prefer being in certain positions as there might be more benefit to that at times than those non-underdogs are a aware of.
So, acc. to me, depends pretty much on the person him/herself, it’s character. An underdog here is not the same as an underdog there.
Not all people are competitive, but might be more competitive towards their other self on the inside, with different results visable for others.
So, at times it is a yes, and at other times a no. Hence .. question/research is not very usefull, unless you know about those differences, can see them, can point out who is in what system and how you could improve certain things with that knowledge, if person asks for that.