A
total of 946 college students and 297 adults were asked to rate how
firmly they agreed with sentiments like “If my neighbor complained about
the appearance of my front yard, I would be tempted to make it look
worse just to annoy him or her” or “If I opposed the election of an
official, I would happily see the person fail even if that failure hurt
my community” or “I would be willing to take a punch if it meant someone
I did not like would receive two punches.” (That attitude, said David Sloan Wilson
of the State University of New York at Binghamton, recalls the Eastern
European folk tale in which a genie offers to grant a man’s wish as long
as his hated neighbor gets double the prize; the man says, “Put out one
of my eyes.”) From
the survey and related experiments, the researchers determined that men
were generally more spiteful than women and young adults more spiteful
than older ones, and that spitefulness generally cohabited with traits
like callousness, Machiavellianism and poor self-esteem — but not with
agreeableness, conscientiousness or a tendency to feel guilt.
total of 946 college students and 297 adults were asked to rate how
firmly they agreed with sentiments like “If my neighbor complained about
the appearance of my front yard, I would be tempted to make it look
worse just to annoy him or her” or “If I opposed the election of an
official, I would happily see the person fail even if that failure hurt
my community” or “I would be willing to take a punch if it meant someone
I did not like would receive two punches.” (That attitude, said David Sloan Wilson
of the State University of New York at Binghamton, recalls the Eastern
European folk tale in which a genie offers to grant a man’s wish as long
as his hated neighbor gets double the prize; the man says, “Put out one
of my eyes.”) From
the survey and related experiments, the researchers determined that men
were generally more spiteful than women and young adults more spiteful
than older ones, and that spitefulness generally cohabited with traits
like callousness, Machiavellianism and poor self-esteem — but not with
agreeableness, conscientiousness or a tendency to feel guilt.
Spite Is Good. Spite Works. - NYTimes.com
I didn't feel spite was a part of the game last night. We all are competitive people in the class and all of us wanted to win. Sanjay and I played the game with winning mentality.Our goal was to become the first team to do the task, not to defeat a particular group in the class.
ReplyDeleteI didn't also didn't feel that spite was part of the game last night. Everyone had their competitive spirits lite which does not have to be a fault. It was fun to see how everyone worked with each other.
ReplyDeleteto me it felt like a mimicry of the market place almost. sure there was a sense of competition but i felt people were protecting their self interest i.e. winning and doing it before anybody else
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure spite is the correct term for the level of competition last night. What I found fascinating was that no one would concede victory to anyone else. And I agree with Sameen: I think it was a microcosm of a market at work. We lacked clear rules and regulations just as many markets do. Some people think markets will regulate themselves. I don't think so. And yet, I also believe that the wrong regulations are worse than no regulations at all.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with both Sameen and Prof. McKinney. One of the reasons why we could not determine a winner for last night's game was due to the lack of the right rules and and regulations for the game. the definition of a 'winner' within the game was very vague and open-ended. i think one of the issues we were attempting to understand was the interaction between competition, winning and ethics. this interaction becomes more complex when examining markets, and how winners and losers are determined within the system.
ReplyDeleteI think even with rules and regulations, there's always a way to go around and bend it in one's favor. I guess that's why law is (or has to be) so long and meticulously detailed... But who gets to decide these rules and regulations and what do we do to minimize biases? Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ly. It seems that the regulators are always playing "catch-up" with the banks (e.g. HFT industry only starting to face scrutiny years after it began). The political/economic clout of the banking industry also allows it to shape the rules easily. I think our competition last night was completely natural and arguably healthy, but the issue arises when deciding how to regulate ourselves.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that spite played a major role yesterday. Maybe if I felt negatively towards some classmates I would've tried harder just so they don't win, but in this game I was not operating out of spite.
ReplyDelete