1. The Contesting Theory of Competition: Evidence from Metaphor Priming.
- Author
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Light Shields, David, Funk, Christopher D., and Light Bredemeier, Brenda
- Subjects
- *
ANALYSIS of variance , *COMPETITION (Psychology) , *EMOTIONS , *ETHICS , *JUDGMENT (Psychology) , *METAPHOR , *PHOTOGRAPHY , *PROBABILITY theory , *SPORTS , *SURVEYS , *THEORY , *MANN Whitney U Test - Abstract
Despite the centrality of competition to sports, little is known about how participants give meaning to their experience of contests. Contesting theory posits that individuals interpret contests through two alternate metaphors. Genuine competition reflects a "contest-is-partnership " metaphor. In contrast, in "decompetition" the contest is interpreted through a "contest-is-war" metaphor. In this two-study investigation, metaphor priming was used to test hypotheses derived from contesting theory. In Study 1, participants (N = 281) were primed with one or the other metaphor and then asked to make moral judgments assessing commitment to integrity in contest situations. In Study 2, following a priming activity, participants (N = 246) were asked to interpret facial expressions of athletes. Both studies provided support for contesting theory. In Study 1, participants primed with the contest-is-war metaphor accepted antisocial behavior to a greater extent than did those primed with the partnership metaphor. In Study 2, those primed with the war metaphor attributed more negative emotion to the portrayed athletes than did those primed with the partnership metaphor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016