Rating, ranking, and hierarchies are universal.

Competitive consciousness has shaped ambitions and achievements.

From a neuroscience perspective, positive choices and actions strengthen executive function.

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).

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