by Kate
26. November 2010 06:29
A freshly released study on the habits of online casino players in Britain has revealed that they are not followers of the fine art of chivalry any more, especially when it comes to competitions.
Here’s what the surveyed Britons admitted to:
• Over 940,000 of them have faked injuries to get the advantage in sports contests.
• 232,000 British men have simulated a disability so that they could one up the opposition.
• Over 240,000 British women have pretended to be pregnant so that they could get a seat on a bus or a train.
• Over 450,000 British men and three quarters of a million women have admitted to pretending to cry to distract their opponents.
• 2.8 million of them will also use emotional blackmail to get their own way.
• 39% of them race to be first on buses or trains or to get the last available seat.
• The surveyed Britons are more likely to engage in friendly competition with strangers (27%) first, then friends (20%) and least likely to engage in competition with partners.
• 16%, 1 in 6, of those surveyed compete with colleagues and only 8% of competition is sibling rivalry.
Karen J Pine, a professor of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire and author of Sheconomics, stated:
"Competition unlocks our primal instinct for survival. In contemporary society we no longer need to fight for food or fire, but the impulse remains so we find ourselves racing for seats on the tube or control of the television remote. Friendly competition allows us to assert ourselves and rank ourselves against others, this urge to establish a pack hierarchy taps into a primitive human emotion. Healthy competition can be an important release and has always been a critical survival mechanism for humans."
Here’s more:
• Time constraints have pushed over 19 million people to race against other drivers.
• A third of people will compete for a parking space.
• 27% will fight for control of the TV remote and 12% will rush to be the first to get to the bathroom in the morning.