title: The thrill of (absolute) victory: success among many enhances emotional payoffs.
abstract: The emotional value of placing in a given percentile of a competition (e.g., placing in the "top 10%") depends on how many competitors are involved. Five studies reveal that winning among larger groups is associated with more positive emotional reactions than winning among smaller groups, even when the objective chances for success are held constant. Participants thought that a runner would feel happier after placing in the top 10% in a race with many (vs. few) competitors (Experiment 1); participants who imagined placing in the top 10% of a trivia quiz predicted that they would feel happier after succeeding among many (vs. few) respondents (Experiment 2); and participants who were given randomly assigned false feedback that they placed in the top 10% of a real creativity challenge actually felt happier when the pool was described as containing many (vs. few) contestants (Experiment 3). This effect appears to be driven by participants' intuitions about the statistical law of large numbers: when people think about success among large pools, they infer that the outcome is more diagnostic of "true" abilities--that the performance must not be a fluke--compared with identical success among small pools, which provides an affective boost (Experiments 4-5).
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. obrieneh@umich.edu
authors.forename: Ed
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: O'Brien
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hagen
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003163:Competitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult