How Competition Changes Our Behavior
As of April 11, 2020 there have been 102,517 deaths from Coronavirus worldwide. All of our hospitals are running out of critical personal protection equipment and lifesaving supplies. Experts are predicting there will be over 37 million jobs lost due to the challenges of these unprecedented times. Each day millions of people are competing against one another for survival, safety, and employment. This is a bleak picture, but one rooted in our new reality.
No one knows what the world will look like when the dust settles on this pandemic but we do know that many people are experiencing intense prolonged competition for the first time. If we are to predict the impact of the current situation on our future lifestyles, it is important to understand how competition shapes our mental models and actions.
The Biology of Competition
In evaluating the impact of anything, you need to be able to measure it. If we want to know how competition influences our decisions, we need the ability to measure the effects of competition.
According to an article published in The Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, the hormones known as Testosterone and Cortisol change greatly when a person is exposed to competition. In general, when in a competitive environment, both hormones rise to a level greater than their…
