為什麼我們渴望勝利?

Whydo people like winning so much?

Because,like other animals, we evolved through competition and natural selection. Earlyhuman who had a strong desire to outcompete everyone else might have found betterquality food or more desirable mate and so passed on their desire to win.

Inmost societies men are more competitive than women, and this sex difference isseen as early as three years old. But there are some societies, such as thematriarchal Khasi of northeast India, in which women have more power and revealgreater competitiveness. Although the nature of winning has changed, the desireto show off, to be the best, or to belong to the top team, remains deeplyembedded in human nature. Sadly, the desire does not necessarily make us happy.Losing is distressing and painful, but so can winning, and the stress of modernhigh performance sports can lead to both mental and physical illness.

為什麼我們渴望勝利?

這是因為我們人類與其他物種一樣，在演化過程中無不充滿了競爭並得要接受物競天擇法則的考驗。最初，有部分的人類他們擁有比一般人更強的慾望，而為了超越所有人，這些擁有強烈鬥爭心的原人會設法找到更高品質的食物以及更渴望交配，想辦法透過各種方式滿足他們心中的熊熊的渴望以求得勝利的滋味。

在大部分的社會環境，男人間的競爭比女性間的競爭激烈許多，且此種性別差異最早可以在三歲的幼童身上發現。不過世界上也是存在著女性競爭比男性激烈的社會，如Khasi 位於印度北方的一個母性社會文明。在那裏女性比起男性擁有更高的權力，也因此擁有更強的鬥爭心。

雖然在現代社會我們對贏的定義有很大的解釋空間，不過那些想在大舞台秀出自己獨門絕活、我要當第一、加入最棒的隊伍等等念頭，仍然保存且體現在我們的天性之中。

遺憾的是，對事物的慾望與飢渴並不能保證能使我們永遠得到快樂，失敗是一種痛苦且讓人傷心的一種感覺，不過正是因為種種失敗經驗的累積我們才能邁向勝利。另外，現代頂尖選手在表演或是競賽時所承受的壓力將極有可能導致身體與心靈的疾病纏身。