So you think being competitive is nature or is it nurture? It certainly runs in my family but that could still be nurture. My dad doesn't even let us win games when we play against him (you know how parents sometimes let their kids win on purpose so they feel happy? Nope. Not my dad). It's not that I'm a sore loser. Not at all. Especially not when everybody plays their best. But as my Grandma once said, "Of course I would rather win." She was great at cards and carpet bowling (even though she was legally blind).
Now. What does it mean to play one's best? I haven't played a competitive sport for quite some time and tonight I filled in playing volleyball in a rec league. I had so much fun. It has been awhile but I limbered up pretty quickly. And, if the ball is even remotely playable (and often when it's seemingly unplayable) I try to get it. I dive and run and do intense back–bends. I crash. I fall. I try my best. This led one guy to state that he thought I was on drugs. It's not drugs though. We didn't win but we had fun.
Some people were certainly less into trying like crazy. Is it because they think they can't get to the ball? Or is it because they're afraid they'll look silly trying so hard? The decision that goes through the mind when a person thinks, "Nah. I'll never get that one." As compared to, "If I don't try I'll never know if I could have got that one and just maybe just maybe I can get it!"
So anyway. I'm competitive. Did nature make me this way or is it learned behavior? Hmmm...
I think there's got to be at least a little instinct in there somewhere. Social life certainly influences exactly how competitive we are, and not that I'm super committed to an evolutionist reading of every human behavior, but I think there's something in all of us that tells us to try (and try harder) or we wouldn't survive.
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