Improving Communication Skills

The Thin Line Between Cooperation & Competition

Professor Maurice Schweitzer

December 7, 1941 January 25, 1951

July 16, 1945 January 19, 1960

6
Sibling Love
 Brotherly Love

Sibling Rivalry
10
11
Different Types of Strategies

• Seven (7) different types of strategies as described by Henry Mintzberg (Strategy

Safari)
• Ask yourself what type of strategy the organization has in which you are currently
working
Improving Communication Skills
The Three Principles of Cooperation & Competition

Professor Maurice Schweitzer

First Principle: Scarcity

• Resources are either scarce or plentiful Friend or Foe

First Principle: Scarcity

• Thanksgiving
• An abundant of resources – food
• Black Friday
• Scarce resources- low price merchandise
 First Principle: Scarcity

Grevy’s Zebras
• Behave differently based on the amount of water available

Abundant water- Scarcity of water-

Stable collectives Temporary mating
relationships

Rubenstein (1994) Animal Societies

Second Principle: Social

Humans
• Inherently social beings
• Solitary confinement- one of the worst forms of punishment
• Hallucinations
• Spasms of anger
• Malaise and apathy
Third Principle: Dynamic Instability

The world is unstable

• We need to change and pivot between cooperation and
competition
Improving Communication Skills
The Mechanics of Comparisons

Professor Maurice Schweitzer

Twins Separated at Birth

Tom Patterson & Steve Tazumi

• Separated at birth
• Grew up in different environments
• Had many similarities
• Both owned body building gyms

“We connected from the first time we met because we are so much alike.”
Key Ideas

Comparisons
• Inevitable
• Upward and downward comparisons
• Social / internal
Dimensions of Comparisons

Similarity
• Siblings
• The more similar, the more the comparisons matter
• The spread of obesity
• People compare themselves to those around them
The Spread of Obesity
Proximity

Rivalries
• UNC Tar Heel s vs. Duke Blue Devils
Proximity

Neighbors
• 2006 film Borat

“He is my neighbor Nursultan Tuliagby. He is a pain in my butt. I get a window

from a glass, he must get a window from a glass. I get a step, he must get a
step. I get a clock radio, he cannot afford. Great success!”
Self-Relevance

Something we care about

• Strong drive to advance ones career
• A co workers promotion is self-relevant
• Neighbor wins an award for baking
• If you don’t bake, the comparison isn’t as intense
Social Comparisons

• Collaboration
• Information may change the way we collaborate or compete with others
• Competition
• Retreat
• If a comparison is unpleasant, one will exit the situation
Improving Communication Skills
The Misery of Upward Comparisons

Professor Maurice Schweitzer

Social Comparisons

• Scott Crabtree
• New co-worker entered his company
at his current salary despite the
experience difference
• Work became irritating
• Ended up quitting and got a new role
as the Chief Happiness Officer
Social Comparisons

• American Airlines
• Union agreed to $1.8 billion annual labor concessions
• $41 million for a special executive pension plan- retention bonuses for
top executives a 2x pay
• Union withdrew concessions
Social Comparisons

David Ed
Miliband David Ed Miliband
Miliband Miliband

David Ed
Round 1 37.78% 34.33%
Round 2 38.89% 37.47%
Round 3 42.72% 42.26%
Round 4 49.35% 50.65%
Social Comparisons

David Ed
Miliband Miliband

“The permanent invidious comparisons made professional

life impossible.” – David Miliband
Adoption of Artificial Twins

• An adopted child that is similar in age to a biological child

• Pros: Built in playmate, economies of scale
• Corrosive social comparison
• Many adoption agencies encourage against the adoption of an artificial
twin
Doing Better & Feeling Worse

• Abel Kiviat, Silver Medalist 1912

• First time the Olympics used a photo finish to determine who won
• Came in second by 1/10 second
Doing Better & Feeling Worse

• Abel Kiviat, Silver Medalist 1912

• “I wake up sometimes and say, ‘What the heck happened to me?’ It’s like a
nightmare.” – 1990 interview
Doing Better & Feeling Worse

• The Silver Medal Face

• Those who come in second seem more distraught than those who finish
third
• 93% of gold medalists smiled
• 70% of bronze medalists smiled
• None of the silver medalists smiled
• Silver medalists compare upward to gold medalists
• Bronze medalists compare downwards to no medal
Improving Communication Skills
Comparisons & Motivation

Professor Maurice Schweitzer

The Good in Comparisons

• 18,060 NBA games over 15 seasons

The Good in Comparisons

• Space Race- July 29,1955

• “The United States will launch a science
satellite to orbit Earth!”
NASA Budget

5.0%
4.3% 4.4%

4.0% 3.5%

$6 billion
3.0% ($32 billion today)
2.3%

2.0%
1.2%
0.9%
1.0% 0.5%
0.1% 0.2%
0.0%
1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966
% of Total Federal Spending
Space Race

One small step for man

One giant leap for America…over the Soviets
Special Social Comparisons- Rivals

• In races against one’s close rivals

• More likely to get a better time

Kilduff (2014) SPPS

Larry Bird & Magic Johnson

“The first thing I would do every morning was

look at the box scores to see what Magic did.
I didn’t care about anything else.”

“
Rivalry

UNC Tar Heels vs. Duke Blue Devils

1993 NCAA Champions 1992 NCAA Champions

“
2009 NCAA Champions 2010 NCAA Champions
Rivalry

• Sisters
• If the husband works less than the sisters husband, the household
income seems like it’s not enough
• The actual amount doesn’t matter- the relative amount matters

Neumark & Postlewaite (1998) JPE

Improving Communication Skills
Comparisons & Cheating

Professor Maurice Schweitzer

 Comparisons & Cheating

Nancy Kerrigan Tanya Harding

1992 Olympic Only American
Bronze Medalist woman to land a
triple axel
Comparisons & Cheating

“BA Can’t get it up!!”

Rivalries

• Professional soccer rivalries

• 2,788 matches played between 2002-2009
• Co-location in the same city lead to more unethical behavior
Professors & SSRN Deception

• Social Comparison
• Peers had high download counts

• Reference Point Comparison

• Close to reaching the Top 10 list

Edelman & Larkin (2009) HBS.

Rivalries

• Rhonda
• Selected to take classes to develop her computer skills
• Socially ostracized from coworkers
Improving Communication Skills
Finding the Right Balance

Professor Maurice Schweitzer

Motivation Satisfaction
Key Rules

• Favorable Comparisons
• Looking down at others who haven’t accomplished as much
• Volunteering
• Increases happiness
• Unfavorable Comparisons
• Can push you to great efforts
Key Bargaining Table

• Negotiation process
• Target– Motivating
• Reservation Price- In comparison, happy
• Target focus
• More motivated but less satisfied
• Reservation price focus
• Less motivated but more satisfied
Bargaining Table

0.6

0.1
Outcome
-0.4
Satisfaction
-0.9
Target BATNA

Focus on Target Before/During Negotiation

Focus on BANTA after
Galinsky, Mussweiler, & Medvec JPSP, 2002
Benefits of Graduating in a Recession

• Graduates make up to 15% less

• Actually happier with their jobs!

Bianchi (2013) ASQ

3 Principals of Social Comparison

1 Assess if the comparison is in/out of order

3 Principals of Social Comparison

• Assess if the comparison is in/out of order

1960: 1961: 1961:

John becomes Robert becomes Ted is elected to
U.S. President Attorney General U.S. Senate
3 Principals of Social Comparison

• Assess if the comparison is in/out of order

• “The Williams Sisters’ rivalry is highly
unusual and utterly remarkable… with all
of their fiery competitiveness on the court,
they’re still incredibly close off of it.”
• 21-1 record in women’s doubles finals
• 2000, 2008, and 2012 Olympic gold
medals
3 Principals of Social Comparison

1 Assess if the comparison is in/out of order

2 Provide new opportunities to compete

3 Anticipate that success will upset others

Comparisons

• Russian parable
• A man finds a lamp, rubs it, and a genie emerges
• “For every wish, your neighbor gets double.”
• “I want you to poke out one of my eyes.”