Growing Beyond the Competitive Lens: Reframing Human Nature Toward Cooperation

Photo by Raúl Gómez on Unsplash

On a sunny playground, a group of children races toward a finish line... Nearby, a teacher posts gold stars on a chart for the top test scores, while parents speak proudly of their kid being “ahead of the others.” Scenes like these play out every day, teaching us a powerful lesson early on: life is a competition. As we grow, the message is reinforced in countless ways. We learn to view the world through a competitive lens, comparing our achievements to others’, striving to be the best in school, sports, career – even in looks and social status. By adulthood, many of us accept it as natural that to succeed, someone else must fail. This ethos is so deeply ingrained that we often don’t question it. But what if this fundamental framing is misleading and even toxic? What if humans – from our biology to our history – actually thrive more on connection and cooperation than on constant competition?

Society indeed trains us, from a young age, to see nearly every arena of life as a contest. Our educational systems often emphasize individual achievement above all.