Studies across research disciplines (including decision-making, social psychology, management, and consumer psychology) demonstrate that people are often demotivated when facing a large number of competitors, but are fiercely competitive when they feel that they are competing with just a few rivals. How can you overcome your innate dread and bolster your performance motivation and, of course, be a winner?

• Understand the psychology behind competition. As the number of competitors increases, it becomes increasingly more difficult to compare one’s own progress to that of other individuals, which can be frustrating and demotivating. Larger-sized competitions can also alter people’s perceived likelihood of winning, as well as their perception of the size of the prize.
• Harness the power of social comparison. One way to overcome the psychological barriers mentioned above is to proactively compare yourself to specific competitors. When information about someone else’s performance is salient in your mind, you’ll be more driven to perform as well as or better than them, and equally importantly, not look bad in front of them.
• Reframe the likelihood of winning. How you think about a competition can greatly influence the actions you take during it. For instance, your level of motivation depends on how likely you believe you are to succeed. For instance, let’s say you’re competing in a national-level exam, and of the 200,000 exam takers, only the top 10% will receive an A rank. This information will tend be subjectively less intimidating if you mentally reframe it as, “on average, 1 in 10 exam takers will receive an A rank.”
• Reframe the prize. Your perception of the competition prize can also be enhanced to evoke a stronger competitive drive. Take a competition with 10,000 participants and 10% chance of winning a $100 prize, as an example. Now, imagine that instead of thinking about “a $100 prize,” you mentally reframe the prize as “winning a share of a $100,000 prize.” By doing this, the reward can feel psychologically more substantial and hence more motivating.