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At the moment, the FIFA World Cup is underway, and Wimbledon has just concluded. Each country in the World Cup is rated and ranked. The same is true for the players at Wimbledon. This universality applies across all disciplines and to life itself.
How Rating, Ranking, and Competition Have Shaped Humanity
History and research also indicate that this process and competitive consciousness have shaped personal ambitions, collective accomplishments, and even civilizations (Ang et al., 2025; Foley, 2017; King, 2025; Lillard, 2015).
Any calls to “stop rating and ranking students and school results” overlook a vital universal truth: comparing, contrasting, judging, competing, rating, and ranking are not only universal but also have been integral to personal and social development since the dawn of human consciousness.
In fact, it is this aspect of the universal human condition that has led to all great achievements. At the same time, it has also led to a better understanding of achievements and mistakes. In his book The Talent Code, Greatness Isn’t Born, It’s Grown, Coyle (2009) points out that mistakes are inevitable and that we use them to continue advancing potential.
The Innate Nature of Comparison and Competition
Because these life functions of comparing, contrasting, judging, competing, rating, and ranking are universal, these constructs are also fundamental for safety and survival. Research also indicates that these universal truths are present at birth, at the sensory level, as infants differentiate, prioritize, and begin to respond to the external world (Johnson, 1991).
Research shows that newborns prefer to attend to familiar voices, especially their mother’s, and show early sensitivity to facial features (DeCasper & Fifer, 1980; Moon et al., 1993).
These early acts of selective sensory attention demonstrate that comparisons (noticing differences), contrasting (differentiating stimuli), and judgments (assessing perceptual relevance), competition (where multiple stimuli vie for the infant’s limited attentional resources), and prioritizing one stimulus over another are universal biological truths (DeCasper & Fifer, 1980; Johnson et al., 1991; Moon et al., 1993).
Through continuous sensory comparisons, the infant brain undergoes experience-dependent change, establishing the foundations for developing and enriching intrinsic capacities such as perseverance, resilience, and self-directed, determined action (DeCasper & Fifer, 1980; Filippa & Kuhn, 2024; Flom et al., 2018; Johnson et al., 1991; Moon et al., 1993).
The Role of Competition and Play in Child Development
Competition is also intrinsic to children and part of their ongoing development. For example, when children shout, “I’m the leader” or “I’m first” as they run, push, and shove to be the first out the door or race each other across a playground, these competitive actions reveal the universal developmental process that shapes their growth.
Further to play, all aspects of personal and social growth—mistakes, achievements, and everything in between—occur during play. In play, children develop perseverance, resilience, self‑control, confidence, emotional insight, empathy, risk assessment, and even the essence of theory of mind: the developing capacity to understand that other people have their own thoughts, intentions, beliefs, and perspectives that differ from one’s own (Arda Tuncdemir, 2025; Carlson et al., 2013; Kuehn, 2025).
This is further supported by extensive evidence that child-directed play is the primary natural, universal context for developing all of these essential existential, psychological, physical, physiological, and sociological traits (Dewey, 1986; Meltzoff, 2007; Lillard et al., 2013).
The Neuroscience of Play and Executive Function Development
Sport and Competition Essential Reads
From a neuroscience perspective, children develop and strengthen their executive functions through their choices and actions, which further strengthen neural pathways, integrate sensory input, and enhance motor skills.
The research also indicates that sensorimotor play and rough-and-tumble interactions stimulate prefrontal maturation, synaptic refinement, and the neural substrates of executive control (Ang et al., 2025; Diamond, 2013; King, 2025; Pellis et al., 2010; Siviy, 2016).
Through this, children learn about cooperation; they also learn that not everyone cooperates or is a friend; they learn about conflict, conflict resolution, and unresolved conflicts. During this time, they continue to develop and enhance their communication skills, including understanding what is fair and what is unfair (Olson & Spelke, 2008).
They also learn that cooperation may be conditional, that reciprocity may or may not occur, and that social interactions may be structured by expectations about who may contribute and who may not. These life lessons in play support the ongoing development of children’s intellectual, emotional, and psychological maturity—all of which is beneficial to one and all (Olson & Spelke, 2008).
During these ongoing developmental years, they also continue to develop the capacity for causal reasoning, creativity, abstract thinking, spatial awareness, and foundational skills for comparison and understanding (Gopnik & Wellman, 2012; Piaget, 1952).
Over these years of play, the children also develop the capacity to experience and manage frustration, and learn how their intrinsic motivation, autonomy, and agency can be further strengthened when they act freely under self-generated rules (Vygotsky, 1978).
Self-initiated play provides a natural context in which children negotiate rules, learn to disagree and cooperate with peers, deepen their social awareness, and begin developing an early moral understanding.
Developmental and moral psychology indicate that insightful engagement in play supports the emergence of fairness, reciprocity, rule-following, and shared intentionality, all of which contribute to the construction of the moral self (Kohlberg & Hersh, 1977; Lunga et al., 2022; Nat et al., 2026; Tomasello, 2018; Killen & Smetana, 2015).
Physical Play as a Context for Social and Emotional Growth
During physical play, whether at home, at school, or anywhere else, children also engage in processes that enable them to safely participate in activities that help them work with their environments, including competition, comparison, contrast, agreement, disagreement, acceptance, and nonacceptance.
All of these create opportunities to develop perseverance, resilience, social adaptability, and intrinsic flexibility. This also involves recognizing that not all circumstances or problems will be resolved and that resilience is essential (Brussoni et al., 2012; Kuehn, 2025; Pellis et al., 2010; Sandseter et al., 2021).
From a universal perspective, any attempt to suppress competition cannot prevent the natural and universal processes of comparing, contrasting, competing, rating, ranking, and judging from taking place.
That is because this process is a function of consciousness, a holistic, universal process that supports the ongoing, successful development of critical thinking, knowledge, higher-order reasoning, deeper understanding, analysis of choices, skills, and endurance (Cheng et al., 2010).
