Competitiveness between Ethnic Malays and Ethnic Chinese in Malaysia

Abstract

Previous research have compared competi-tive behaviour between participants of different nationali-ties, profession and gender. This current research investi-gates competitive behaviour between a multiethnic sample from Malaysia. Ethnic Malay and ethnic Chinese Malaysi-ans were primed to compete in a singing competition and completed a Revised Competitive Index questionnaire. Re-sults showed that ethnic Chinese were more competitive and enjoyed competing more than ethnic Malays. There were also significant differences in gender with females being more competitive, enjoyed competing and were more contentious than males. These results are discussed in terms of previous research on cultural, socio-political poli-cies and gender sensitivities.