The benefits of co-operative behaviours have been broadly documented in various social contexts, including neighbourhoods, hospitals, companies and in education. In education, when students, teachers, parents and the school principal know and trust each other, work together, and share...

Although contests are recognized theoretically as a highly effective method of motivation, the competitive nature of contests may generate unintended negative effects on social interactions in more general settings beyond contests. Using a laboratory experiment of real effort tasks with...