Winning a competition makes people more likely to later behave dishonestly, according to a study by Amos Schurr at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Ilana Ritov at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In five studies, they found that winning a competition increased the winners’ likelihood of stealing money from their counterparts in a subsequent unrelated task. The effect held when winning was due to performing better than others, but not when success was determined by chance or in reference to a personal goal. The researchers say a possible cause is an enhanced sense of entitlement among competition winners. Their findings indicate that success is multifaceted: When success is measured by social comparison, as is the case when winning a competition, dishonesty increases; when success does not involve social comparison, as is the case of meeting a set goal, dishonesty decreases. Further, they suggest that entitlement may mediate this effect, and that winning in a competitive setting provokes dishonest behavior in unrelated situations.
Source: Winning a competition predicts dishonest behavior
