Dear Editor:
President Bush recently declared in reference to the Olympic games in Salt Lake City “The world is united in Utah.” Based on the overwhelming evidence provided by psychological, business and educational research, nothing could be further from the truth.
Competition involves a zero sum game whereby when someone wins, someone else must lose. In contrast, cooperation is defined as: I only reach my goal if you reach your goal as well.
Between 1949 and 1954 a series of experiments on competition and aggression were conducted by Muzfer Sherif and entitled “Robbers Cave.” The study involved a group of normal 11 to 12 year old boys who were divided into two teams. They lived in separate cabins and were pitted against each other in competitive games such as football, baseball and tug of war. Prizes were given to the winning team. It was hypothesized that if one group could be successful only at the expense of another, then this arrangement would promote other forms of hostility and aggressive acts. The results supported the hypotheses. Otherwise normal boys in the camp became aggressive towards each other’s teams with teasing and other forms of aggressive acts. This even involved good friends who were split up into different teams becoming more aggressive towards each other. The groups did other things such as burning each other’s flags, throwing food and attacking each other at night after the games. The boys were similar in all other respects; the only factor, which produced hostility, was the competition between the groups.
This study and others like it have clearly show that competittion fosters aggression and does not in any way produce good will. How can good will be obtained when the goal is to beat another person so that you can be number one? There is absolutely no evidence in the psychological literature showing that losing (which you do most often in competion) builds character. In fact, losing has been shown to create self-doubts. Other evidence shows that competition in sports can be growth limiting and may create despression, extreme stress and shallow relationships.
Despite all the pomp and fanfare of the Olympics, the bottomline is who is going to be the winner and who is going to be the loser (and who is going to make money?) The media frequently display gold medal tallies for each country and we all saw the arguments arise over the judging of the figure skatitng, clearly showing that the outcome of who wins to be more important that getting along and promoting good will.
If the Olympics truly wanted to promote good will and cooperation between nations, then there should be an Olympics of Cooperation. This would involve teams of doctors, medical personnel, research scientists, engineers and other professional groups coming together and working coopertively to help less developed countries. Each year, teams would be drawn from entering countries and sent to work along side one another to create hospitals, roads and other aids in living for less fortunate countries. This would truly be the way to promote good will and harmony amongst the Nations Countries.
Mankind would have never survived without cooperation. With animals that were larger than us, environments that were hostile and being of a relatively small frame, to survive we too had to band together and support each other. Our children have to be more educated about the myths and destructiveness of competition has to be done away with. It is possible under cooperation to do one’s best without it being contingent on someone’s loss. Cooperation is also a factor in establishing a sense of community.
Ronald J. Coughlin Ed.D., President
The Violence Prevention Institute