Winning Isn’t Everything: Competition, Achievement Orientation, and Intrinsic Motivation John M. Tauer and Judith M. Harackiewicz University of Wisconsin—Madison Received June 4, 1998; revised January 22, 1999; accepted February 3, 1999 To test Harackiewicz and Sansone’s (1991) process model of intrinsic motivation in a competitive context, we examined the effects of competition and achievement orientation on intrinsic motivation. In Study 1, participants received positive or negative feedback regarding their performance in competitive and noncompetitive conditions, and we found that achievement orientation moderated the effects of competition. Individuals high in achievement orientation enjoyed a word game more in competition than those low in achievement orientation across conditions of positive and negative feedback. We also examined the effects of performance feedback and found positive effects of interpersonal (outcome) and intrapersonal feedback that were independent of competitive context. In Study 2, we found that achievement orientation moderated the effects of competition, even in the absence of outcome feedback. Mediational analyses identified competence valua- tion, perceived challenge, eagerness, and positive affect as mediators of competition and feedback effects on intrinsic motivation.  1999 Academic Press We strive to be Number One . . . But win or lose, it is the competition which gives us pleasure. Joe Paterno, Coach of Pennsylvania State University’s football team (Tutko & Bruns, 1976, p. 205) Defined as the desire to take part in an activity for its own sake (Deci & Ryan, 1985), intrinsic motivation represents a unique type of motivation. Early research This study is based in part on a master’s thesis completed by the first author under the direction of the second author. We thank RandyYoung for his invaluable assistance on Study 1, Dacher Keltner and Tim Baker for their insightful comments throughout this project, Kenn Barron for his helpful feedback on an earlier draft, and Julie Stawicki and Sandy Kutler for their help with this article. We are also grateful to Sarah Baier, Melissa Bonnin, Rachel Dean, Nicole Denow, Peter Drobac, Michelle Lefco, Jessica Matthews, Eric Pierce, Kristin Schneider, Casey Schwab, Karina Simons, Sarah Terry, and Jeremy Welland for their assistance with data collection and for serving as our resident Boggle experts. Address correspondence and reprint requests to John Tauer or Judith Harackiewicz, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, 1202 West Johnson St., Madison, WI 53706. E-mail: jmtauer@ students.wisc.edu or jmh@macc.wisc.edu. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 35, 209–238 (1999) Article ID jesp.1999.1383, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on 209 0022-1031/99 $30.00 Copyright  1999 by Academic Press All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.