Researchers measure how ranking affects later performance

Researchers from the University of Oxford and Cornell University have measured how ranking workers affects later levels of performance. A total of 18 experimental sessions took place in a laboratory study involving 300 students, who were divided into groups made up of 17 people for the various tasks. They were given verbal and numerical tasks and ranked afterwards on how well they had done, with their score in the tasks corresponding to 'effort'. The researchers found that those who learnt they were in first place significantly boosted their effort in tasks afterwards by over one-fifth (21%) compared with the average level of effort for the tasks overall. Those placed last boosted effort in later tasks by 12% compared with the average. However, those ranked in the in the middle (ranked 9th or 10th) put in the least effort of those who had received feedback on their ranking, putting in 11% less effort than the average. As their rank increased from 17th to 10th, their effort fell as they improved and safely moved away from bottom place.