Competitiveness and Stress

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between competitiveness and stress. In Experiment 1, we observe a higher response of cortisol—the primary stress hormone—to the computation task coupled with tournament than to the computation task with piece rate. Moreover, more competitive subjects exhibit higher stress responses than their less competitive counterparts in the computation tasks under both tournament and piece rate. In Experiment 2, we find that exogenously induced stress does not significantly affect competitiveness. Overall, our findings reveal an important trade‐off between tournament and piece rate in terms of stress response with implications on the design of incentive contracts.

How Stress Affects Performance and Competitiveness Across Gender

“…This might explain why their findings differ from our findings: they observe that women (but not men) who were exposed to the stressor were comparatively more willing to compete. Zhong et al (2018) experimentally induce psychosocial stress using the TSST-G and measure subsequent willingness to compete, but in contrast to this study, they find no significant effect of stress on competitiveness. They report no significant gender differences, though their study was not designed to test for this.…”

“…For women only, a stronger cortisol reaction to (forced) competition is associated with higher willingness to compete. Zhong et al (2018) confirm that competition increases cortisol levels. Buckert et al (2017) find that competition increases subjective measures of stress and heart rate, but unlike Buser et al (2017) and Zhong et al (2018), they find no effect on salivary cortisol.…”

“…Zhong et al (2018) confirm that competition increases cortisol levels. Buckert et al (2017) find that competition increases subjective measures of stress and heart rate, but unlike Buser et al (2017) and Zhong et al (2018), they find no effect on salivary cortisol. As in Buser et al (2017), they find that the stress reaction to (forced) competition is positively correlated with willingness to compete in women but find the opposite effect in men.…”

“…Most relevant to our study, Buser et al (2017) and Zhong et al (2018) exogenously manipulate stress before eliciting willingness to compete. In contrast to our study, the treatment in Buser et al (2017) consists of a physical stressor (putting a hand in ice-cold water), which can induce a different physiological and psychological reaction (Allen et al 2014, Haushofer andJang 2015).…”

“…They also study how randomized exposure to a physical stressor affects tournament performance but only after subjects self-select into competition, and likewise, they find no effect. Similarly, Zhong et al (2018) observe only the performance of subjects who self-selected into (or out of) competition. We expand this literature by showing how women respond differently to competitive incentives when under stress, and we are able to do so causally by first exposing subjects to a psychosocial stressor in the stress treatment and subsequently having them perform under both piece rate and (forced) competition.…”