Rankings, hierarchies, and competitions are an integral part of peoples' personal and professional lives and knowing one's standing vis-à-vis others helps employees decide how to outdo higher-ranked colleagues and how to refrain from being outdone by lower-ranked others. But whom do people attend to when considering these rankings? In seven studies (and five supplementary studies; N = 4496) we document a robust asymmetry in attention to higher-ranked versus lower-ranked competitors. First, using unobtrusive measures, we show that people attend more to and exhibit better memory for their higher-ranked (vs. lower-ranked) peers. Second, we demonstrate that this asymmetry is reduced when attention is shifted to lower-ranked competitors, and is moderated by participants' own standing. Finally, we find that asymmetrically attending to higher-ranked others leads people to overestimate minority representation in rankings and to make suboptimal financial decisions. We discuss implications for social comparison theory, workplace rankings, and the psychology of competition.

排名、等级制度和竞争是人们个人和职业生活不可分割的一部分，了解一个人相对于他人的地位有助于员工决定如何超越级别较高的同事以及如何避免被级别较低的其他人超越。但是在考虑这些排名时，人们会关注谁呢？在七项研究（和五项补充研究；N = 4496）我们记录了对排名较高的竞争对手和排名较低的竞争对手的注意力的强烈不对称。首先，使用不显眼的措施，我们表明人们对排名较高（相对于排名较低）的同龄人的关注更多并表现出更好的记忆力。其次，我们证明，当注意力转移到排名较低的竞争对手时，这种不对称性会减少，并且会受到参与者自身地位的调节。最后，我们发现不对称地关注排名较高的其他人会导致人们高估排名中的少数族裔代表性，并做出次优的财务决策。我们讨论了对社会比较理论、工作场所排名和竞争心理的影响。