The interplay between resentment, motivation, and performance

ABSTRACT

While anger in sports has been explored in philosophy, the phenomenon known as having a ‘chipped shoulder’ (or CSP) has not. In this paper I explore the nature, causes, and effects of playing with a ‘chip on your shoulder’ in order to highlight the interplay between resentment, motivation, and performance. CSP, on my account, involves a lasting grudge, controlled anger, and desire for non-moral payback at being overlooked, slighted, or underestimated in sports presently or at one point in one’s career. I argue that CSP can motivate and thus enhance athletic performance. I also show how athletes can and should have a chipped shoulder forever.

KEYWORDS:

• Resentment
• motivation
• anger
• performance
• chip on the shoulder
• adversity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. This is not to say that executive decisions are never made in morally problematic ways or for reasons unrelated to sports such as race, gender, or politics. This would be to ignore, for example, the historical fact that there was a time in American professional sports when only whites could participate. It also ignores the ways in which some athletes today are discounted on the basis of their race such as Asian-Americans or gender such as trans athletes, and punished based on their political stance such as athletic activists.

2. These traits are not just within a select group of athletes but also entrepreneurs, academics, and artists.

3. I am aware that some sports such as free climbing does not depend on competition but completion.

4. I am simply stating the puzzle here. For solutions to it, see more of Callard (2018) and Radzik (2009).

5. And when I say minimal, I really mean it. I will not be giving a full-blown account that philosophers like David Papineau (2017) do.

6. There are exceptions, although rare. This history can be disrupted as when the Seattle Supersonics moves to another city, changes their name and becomes the Oklahoma City Thunder. It will not hold that a chip for the Supersonics will transfer to the Thunder.

7. I imagine NBA player Khawi Leonard to be, if not a stoic player, as close to one as it gets.

8. Research that examines the relationship between motivation and athletic scholarships are consistent in showing that athletes with scholarships have less internal motivation than athletes with no scholarships. This shows that achieving external rewards can lower intrinsic motivation.

9. To witness this in full display, watch Michael Jordan’s NBA Hall of Fame speech. G.O.A.T is an acronym for ‘greatest of all time’.