WHO WILL WIN THE COMPETITION? PERSONALITY, STRATEGY AND SUCCESS IN A COMPETITIVE GAME

From the evolutional perspective, goods gained in the competition can increase the individual’s prospect for surviving and mating, resulting in a higher genetic representation in the next generations. Our aim was to investigate how personality characteristics influence the benefits earned from and strategies applied to a competitive game that was played for real money. In the experimental settings university students played the Public Goods game, transformed to a competitive situation. We used Temperament and Character Inventory by Cloninger, and the Mach IV. Test in order to obtain information about the subjects’ personality and character profiles and their level of Machiavellianism. Furthermore, at the end of the experiment participants reported the main motives underlying their decisions during the game which enabled us to classify them as “individually-oriented” and “prosocially-oriented” players. Significant difference was found between the female and male participants in the amount of benefit they gained: the women’s contribution to the public goods was significantly higher, therefore they earned less money, than men did. The amount of benefit negatively correlated with Reward Dependence and Persistence. Finally, significant differences were revealed between individually-oriented and prosocially-oriented players in the strategy they played, and the amount of benefit they gained.