Rivalry

Friendly rivalries

A rivalry in which competitors remain at odds over specific issues or outcomes, but otherwise maintain civil relations, can be called a friendly rivalry. Institutions such as universities often maintain friendly rivalries, with the idea that "[a] friendly rivalry encourages an institution to bring to the fore the very best it has to offer, knowing that if it is deficient, others will supersede it". In some instances, institutions such as corporations, sports leagues, or military units, may encourage friendly rivalries between subsets within that institution. For example, in the 1870s, the British Army held a sports competition in which individual military units selected members to compete against those selected by other units, for the purpose of engendering friendly rivalries between the units to promote internal cohesion. Such rivalries may also be encouraged in order to prompt individual members of those subsets to compete more productively.

Interservice rivalries can occur between different branches of a country's armed forces, arising from the competition for limited resources among a nation's land, naval, and air forces. The term also applies to the rivalries between a country's intelligence services (e.g. CIA and FBI in the United States), or between the police and fire services of a city, such as the NYPD and FDNY.

Rivalry in specific fields

Interpersonal relationships

A variety of rivalries occur in interpersonal relationships.

Sibling rivalry is a type of competition or animosity among siblings, whether blood related or not. Siblings generally spend more time together during childhood than they do with parents. The sibling bond is often complicated and is influenced by factors such as parental treatment, birth order, personality, and people and experiences outside the family. Sibling rivalry is particularly intense when children are very close in age and/or of the same gender and/or where one or both children are intellectually gifted. According to a review by Macionis, older siblings tend to report rivalry peaking in childhood, while younger siblings report a peak later during early adolescence.

Rivalries also occur between people who have competing romantic interests in the same potential romantic partner:

The jealousy mechanism is activated if a committed romantic relationship is threatened by a rival. ... In heterosexual relationships, the rival is an individual of the opposite sex; in homosexual relationships, the rival is of the same sex. The rival can be imagined, suspected, or real. The minimal requirement for an individual to be perceived as a rival is fulfilled if the partner is assumed to be attracted to this other person and if this attraction is considered sufficient to eventually result in the partner's infidelity. It is less clear whether someone should be considered a rival who is attracted to the partner when the partner does not return this attraction, as in this case a partner's infidelity appears rather unlikely.

People employ a number of mechanisms to counter romantic rivals, such as discrediting the characteristics of the rival that the romantic partner might seek in a long-term relationship.

Economics and politics

In economics, both goods and producers of goods are said to be rivals. A good is said to be rivalrous if its consumption by one consumer prevents simultaneous consumption by other consumers. Companies that compete to sell the same goods can become rivals as each seeks to convince consumers to purchase its products, to the exclusion of the products of its rival:

The competition of commercial rivals... centers on mutual exclusion from important markets, or the threat thereof. If a commercial rival continues to gain, there is some likelihood that its closest competitor will be excluded altogether from the market in question, or else reduced to a marginal position there. It is not inconceivable that some commercial rivalries transform into strategic rivalries.

In the study of international relations, rivalries between nation states may be highly formalized or comparatively informal. Shohov and colleagues cite Soviet Union-United States relations during the Cold War as one example of a formalized rivalry, "with its period summits and arms-control negotiations". In either case, the formulation of the rivalry carries with it its own expectation of appropriate behaviors among the participants, which works to sustain the relationship, and limit the avenues available to those who would work to undo it. Rivalries between nations can induce them to compete "over naval armaments, foreign aid, cultural influence, and athletic events", the rivalry in each case occurring within the context of the competitors having "labeled one or more of their adversaries as worthy of particular concern and attention". It has been noted that "while all great powers, almost by definition, are competitors, only some brand each other as rivals", with rivals being "competitors who have been singled out for special attention in some way":

Presumably, there is something unusual about their competitiveness. In most cases, the special significance can be attributed to a perception of acute threat to important values and interests.

International rivalry

When two or more nations compete against one another, they may engage in a war that lasts for several years or even decades. Multiple factors can lead to rivalries, such as territorial disputes, historical grudges that have shaped the relationship between the two countries, rival ideologies, or economic competition. Depending on the topic of the conflict, there may be military action, illicit activity, or even deception efforts. Rivalries can have detrimental social, political, and economic effects for the nations that are involved. Particularly, a trade conflict may have a negative effect on the economies of the state. The international system may become unstable as a result, for example, if additional states join the fight. Rivalries can sometimes be settled through negotiation under many guises, helping to better mold the international framework and international relationships while preventing the need of the military for conflict.

In, international relations, interstate rivalry is a competitive relationship in which states are involved in conflicts such as militarized or diplomatic disputes due to unresolved issues, creating different types such as historical, territorial, trade, and technological, strategic, or security. Historical conflicts and relationship will shape the behavior or the states decisions for the future, which can make leaders perceive actions as threats, or even create alliances that are also in agreement against the opposing state. Rivalry mainly occurs with states that are persistent and the feud relationship has to occur for a decade to be considered a rivalry, or to go to war, and have several conflicts throughout the years. Territorial disputes, being the most obvious type of rivalry, is when neighboring states creates militarized disputes and conflicts to control another state's border or land. Historical rivalry, is many significant events that cause the two or more states to oppose or see the other as an enemy, over time as many conflicts, and disputes arise it will cause a rivalry make the two states always loathe the state.

There is trade rivalry that occurs when the two state's tensions are rising, so to take action the leaders will increase the price of costs to make the other state suffer as punishment. There are different stages within a rivalry, the act the commence the negative or opposing relationship between the states, over time with different conflicts and disputes escalating the relationship, the states enact in a military dispute, and it de-escalating it and the tensions calms down. Shocks or regime transitions also terminates a rivalry between states, but it highly relies on the leaders creating alliances, agreements or treaties, and bargaining. Rivalry in the world today is created based on history of international relationships and countries perceive it as a strategic process.

Sports

Sports rivalries are often closely connected with the ritualism associated with sports. Ritualism is "a series of ... iterated acts or performances that are ... famous in terms 'not entirely encoded by the performer'; that is, they are imbued by meanings external to the performer". Everyone who is part of a sports event in some capacity becomes a part of the ritualism associated with sports. Teams get together before the game to warm-up, coaches shake hands with each other, captains have a determiner of who gets the ball first, everyone stands during the national anthem, the fans sit in specific areas, make certain gestures with their hands throughout the game, wearing specific gear that is associated with the team, and have the same post-game practices, every game of every season of every year. It is through this consistency of playing the same teams yearly that "these rivalries have shown remarkable staying power". Specifically, it is society's drive to disrupt these original rituals that start rivalries. Horst Helle says, "society needs a particular quantitative relationship of harmony and disharmony, association and competition, favour and disfavour, in order to take shape in a specific way". Society is drawn to this in sports because this is a principal characteristic in everyday life, which can be seen in historic religious rivalries, such as the contemporary example of sectarianism in Glasgow. Within an area, differences between two types of people can drive the start of a rivalry. Competition and support keep the rivalry going.

In sports, competition tests who has better skill and ability at the time of the game through play. Many rivalries persist because the competition is between two teams that have similar abilities. Spectators gravitate towards competitive rivalries because they are interesting to watch and unpredictable. Society follows competitions because competitions influence "the unity of society". Being loyal to one team in a rivalry brings a sense of belonging to a community of supporters that are hoping that the team they are rooting for wins. The fans of the two different teams do not sit next to each other because this disrupts the community. In a similar way, competition displays an indirect way of fighting. Society does not condone direct fighting as a way of getting something so this is the most passive-aggressive way of fighting. Because this is an acceptable practice, there are many supporters of competition as they fuel a way for the people to participate in a rivalry without the consequences of fighting. However, when the competition is not enough in sports and the tensions are high fighting may ensue.

A Glenn Guilbeau, a sportswriter codified the essentials of a sports rivalry in the United States. To be termed a rivalry, the competition requires

1. True hatred on both sides; not just an inferiority complex from one group of supporters.
2. Proximity – the closer, the better.
3. Each team needs to have a winning season. Otherwise the team with the most wins can't take the other team seriously.
4. A "history." Short term rivalries seem irrelevant.
5. Not essential, but important for the "hate" factor is national significance (for college teams). Otherwise, no one else may care.

Effects

Rivalries may increase motivation, lead to greater effort, and better performance. They may also contribute to greater risk taking behavior among participants, and increase a propensity for unethical behavior.

These differences may lead to poor decision making on the part of groups and individuals that may not otherwise take place in the absence of a rivalry. Examples examined in the literature include the 1994 attacks by figure skater Tonya Harding against her rival Nancy Kerrigan, the admission in court by British Airways that they had engaged in a number of unethical practices against their business rival Virgin Atlantic (including stealing confidential data and spreading rumors about CEO Richard Branson), and the overpayment of Boston Scientific in their acquisition (called the "second worst" ever) of Guidant, due to the fact that they were bidding against their rival company Johnson & Johnson. At the extreme, competition between rivals "possesses some likelihood of escalation to physical damage".