Associations between success and failure in a face-to-face competition and psychobiological parameters in young women

How stressful are economic competitions in the lab? An investigation with physiological measures

“…Therefore, we speculate that more severe physiological consequences are likely to occur outside the laboratory, i.e., for economic tournaments with higher stakes like bonuses or wages or more farreaching consequences. Indeed, other studies investigating real-world contests in non-economic areas report increases in cortisol (e.g., during sports competitions: Rohleder et al 2007) while laboratory studies often do not find cortisol reactions (e.g., Mehta and Josephs 2006;Costa and Salvador 2012).…”

“…According to the model, an active coping style more likely leads to victory whereas a passive coping style often results in defeat. While animal studies on the rewarding properties of testosterone as well as studies on the differential physiological patterns of coping styles provided the basis for the model´s main assumptions (Salvador and Costa 2009), there is also first direct human empirical evidence supporting this "coping style" model (Salvador et al 2003;Costa and Salvador 2012).…”

Baseline cortisol moderates testosterone reactivity to women's intercollegiate athletic competition

“…Bedgood et al [8] showed that the TSST could increase salivary levels of T in men and, in addition, that this increase was moderated by basal (before-testing) levels of C. That is, the lower a participant's basal level of cortisol, the larger the testosterone response to the TSST. Transient increases in T are seen in a variety of other social interactions in which status is contested e.g., [3,9,10], and may function to promote the motivation for status-seeking/competitive behaviors in some settings [11]. If higher baseline levels of C decrease T response to stress, this could negatively impact testosterone-driven achievement motivation in stressfully challenging situations, particularly ones that are socially contextualized.…”

Cooperation Induces an Increase in Emotional Response, as Measured by Electrodermal Activity and Mood

“…Another objective of this study was to assess whether there were differences in variables related to appraisal of the situation and outcomes obtained (motivation, satisfaction with the outcome and locus of control), and in mood states assessed by self-reports of participants to the task given, as a function of gender, the type of social interaction (cooperating, competing or working alone), and outcome obtained in the task. In relation to these variables, previous studies have reported greater motivation and greater satisfaction with outcome and a more positive mood in those who cooperated and obtained positive outcomes (that is those who won or did well the task) than in those who cooperated and obtained negative outcomes (that is, lost or did less well in the task) and in those who competed and obtained positive rather than negative outcomes (Costa and Salvador 2012;Ricarte et al 2001). Hence, we expected to find greater motivation and satisfaction with the outcome of the social interaction, as well as better mood, in participants who competed or cooperated and obtained positive outcomes than those who competed or cooperated and obtained negative outcomes.…”

“…Concerning competition, most studies have found that participants with positive outcomes, winners, have a better mood after competition and greater internal attribution for the outcome, while the opposite is observed in losers, who have a worse mood and greater external attribution for the outcome, both in men and women (Costa and Salvador 2012;González-Bono et al 1999;Ricarte et al 2001). Exploring cooperation, Moya-Albiol et al (2013) observed that outcome and gender had an effect on mood.…”