A Mechanism That Necessarily Exists in Humans: The Competition Instinct — After Adaptation Is Complete, What Still Pushes a Person Upward
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: This paper argues one thing: a person keeps growing after adaptation is complete, and the demand for "better still" can only be issued by an innate inner mechanism, which this paper calls the competition instinct. On the side of existence: abilities contain no demand; when adaptation is complete the environment stops pressing; neither urging nor coercion issues it, and remove it and the day abilities suffice is the day growth stops. Operation is one chain: a standard is taken, the standard-gap between standards is taken, and the gap generates intention; intention calls up a second round of learning, the same shape as the first but starting from the level he has already reached; in between lie attempts beyond number, far harder than first learning because that starting point is too high; intervention after failure evaluates failure and competition itself and blocks, and may coerce. Response therefore decides not only which behaviours survive but how large intention is: the intention to rise and the intention not to be hurt again offset each other, and offset to the end is judging showing up itself dangerous. One gate holds the range: this is not competition as society knows it, nor contention over material basis and living space; it is not even struggling but a person's inner driver of his own growth. Its judgement is relative to the environment, not a verdict on the person, so the paper argues for changing arenas and rules, not eliminating people. No timetable, no normative value.
Author: Wu, Yang
Language: English
Subfield: Applied Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225593992