Abstract

Choosing to cooperate or to compete is a regular and important social decision. Certain scenarios call for one over the other, but people do not always behave logically. The present study describes trends to irrationally compete when cooperation is the means to success. A paradigm similar to the Kagan and Madsen (1971) checkers-style game was used in which cooperation resulted in mutual benefit and competition resulted in nothing. The participants in this 25-year observational study were adult university students and coaches, and though they are presumed to be rational thinkers, the large majority of them contradictorily competed. In the rare cases of cooperation during these games, at least one person in the pair tended to come from a rural or community-oriented background; this is a phenomenon worth acknowledging. To be successful, it is essential to understand the full context of a situation in order to recognize mutually beneficial situations. It is necessary to understand cooperative and competitive behaviors to meaningfully advance societal activities as well as maximizing individual benefits.

摘要

选择合作还是竞争是一项定期而重要的社会决定。某些方案要求一种方案高于另一种方案，但是人们并不总是表现出合理的行为。本研究描述了当合作是成功的手段时非理性竞争的趋势。使用了类似于Kagan和Madsen（1971）跳棋式游戏的范例，其中合作带来了互惠互利，而竞争则没有带来任何收益。这项为期25年的观察性研究的参与者是成年的大学生和教练，尽管他们被认为是理性的思想家，但其中大多数人相互矛盾。在这些比赛中很少有合作的情况下，两人中至少有一个人倾向于来自农村或社区背景。这是一个值得承认的现象。为了成功 为了识别互惠互利的情况，必须了解情况的完整背景。必须了解合作和竞争行为，以有意义地促进社会活动以及最大程度地提高个人利益。