ACHIEVERS, NOT WINNERS: ON THE NEGATIVE ROLE OF GUILT PRONENESS IN COMPETITIVE SETTINGS

Guilt proneness is associated with high work intensity and job performance, by enhancing personal and interpersonal motives. However, at many work settings, competitive goals place personal achievement and interpersonal motives at odds. We propose that guilt proneness hampers, rather than bolsters, goal pursuit in competitive settings. We tested our prediction in one lab experiment and two field studies. In the lab, guilt proneness increased participants’ preference to play a game individually over competing with other participants (Study 1). In the field, we found that high guilt proneness of physicians predicted higher achievement motivation but lower competitive motivation, which resulted in a lower preference for specializing in medical fields characterized by competitive values (Study 2). Similarly, amateur catchball players with high guilt proneness displayed lower competitive motivation, and preferred an equal distribution of playing time over a scheme focused on winning (Study 3). These results demonstrate that the same individual attribute generally responsible for high motivation and performance also predicts lower motivation to compete and a lower desire to win.