I remember doing a group research project on participation trophies as an undergrad. The general consensus that we got from reading the papers was that they were useless as worst, and a bit helpful at encouraging kids and adults to at least try at best.
Next, we did an experiment with students on campus to complete at a simple game to win candy. Results were clear - the participation candy and no impact on performance but did encourage more people to compete.
Then during the final presentation a teammate went rogue and added a weird rambling youtube video contradicting everything else in the presentation without telling any of us that they were doing that. It’s been almost 10 years since then, and I’m still a bit salty over that presentation. But the lesson learned about participation trophies has always stuck with me.
I remember doing a group research project on participation trophies as an undergrad. The general consensus that we got from reading the papers was that they were useless as worst, and a bit helpful at encouraging kids and adults to at least try at best.
Next, we did an experiment with students on campus to complete at a simple game to win candy. Results were clear - the participation candy and no impact on performance but did encourage more people to compete.
Then during the final presentation a teammate went rogue and added a weird rambling youtube video contradicting everything else in the presentation without telling any of us that they were doing that. It’s been almost 10 years since then, and I’m still a bit salty over that presentation. But the lesson learned about participation trophies has always stuck with me.