A study by Pennsylvania State University and Central Queensland University has found that individuals feel completely satisfied when they excel at something better than their peers. At the same time, researchers said that people feel humiliated if they fail to achieve their goals when compared to others.

"Our research suggests that when your goal is to outperform others, your feelings of pride will be amplified when you succeed," said Amanda Rebar, postdoctoral researcher, Central Queensland University. "But when your goal is to avoid being outperformed by others, your feelings of shame will be amplified when you fail."

For the study, researchers asked 58 undergraduate students to earn maximum points at 24 rounds of Tetris (video game). Before every round, the participants were given a criterion to earn points. Then after every round, they were given feedback by the researchers and were asked to rate their feelings of pride or shame.

"Our results suggest that a person's motivation and purpose regarding a task -- whether that task is a video game, a race or an academic exam -- impacts the amount of pride or shame he or she will experience in response to success or failure," study researcher David Conroy, a professor of kinesiology at Penn State, said in a press release. "And the amount of pride or shame a person feels can influence whether he or she will persist in the task or drop out."

Researchers said that comparing performances with others has both pros and cons.

Rebar said that better performance can boost "confidence, persistence, and problem-solving ability, which can help people, perform at their best." On the other hand, failing to do better can be discouraging.

"If a baseball player is the first to strike out in a game, his shame may cause him to become distracted or to worry too much about his precise movements, both of which can hurt his performance," Reber said.

Conroy suggests people to focus on achievable goals.

"It may be particularly helpful if coaches and teachers understand these results so they can help influence their athletes' and students' achievement goals so as to minimize feelings that can hurt performance," Conroy said.

The finding has been published in the journal Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology.