Effects of Competition on Physiological Measures

An article that appeared in JASS, issue 2017Human-beings face aspects of interpersonal competition in many areas of life. Whether it be competing with other candidates for a job position, a slot at the school of your dreams, or even competing for the last cookie in the jar, competition is unavoidable. The purpose of this study was to examine the physiological effects of competition in the form of a memory matching game. Participants were asked to fill out a survey assessing their perceived competitiveness level. Those surveys were used to place participants into control and experimental groups, ensuring an equal composition of competitiveness level and gender between the two. Baseline data were taken for each group. Participants in the control group played the memory matching game on their own for one minute, and the participants in the experimental group competed with a confederate to see who could get the most matches in the minute provided. After analysis of the data, it was found that heart rate increased with competition while blood pressure and respiration rate showed no significant difference. These findings could have profound effects in educational settings, including how student knowledge is tested