Investigation of the Social Predictors of Competitive Behavior and the Moderating Effect of Culture

Research has shown that Competition is a powerful intrinsic motivator of behavior change. However, little is known about the predictors of its persuasiveness and the moderating effect of culture. In this paper, we investigate the predictors of "the persuasiveness of Competition" (i.e. Competition) using three social influence con-structs: Reward, Social Comparison and Social Learning. Using a sample of 287 participants, comprising 213 individualists and 74 collectivists, we explored the interrelationships among the four social influence constructs and how the two cultures differ and/or are similar. Our global model, which accounts for 46% of the variation in Competition, reveals that Reward has the strongest influence on Competition, followed by Social Comparison. However, the model shows that Social Learning has no significant influence on Competition. Finally, our multigroup analysis reveals that, for our population sample, culture does not moderate the interrelationships among the four constructs. Our findings suggest that designers of gamified applications can employ Reward, Social Comparison and Competition as co-persuasive strategies to motivate behavior change for both cultures, as the susceptibilities of users to Reward and Social Comparison are predictors of their susceptibility to Competition.