Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
We investigate the fairness views of impartial spectators toward workers who behave competitively but are unsuccessful in a winner-take-all, real-effort task. In an online experiment with more than 5800 participants, spectators show significantly less concern for unsuccessful workers who voluntarily entered a competition for pay or behaved selfishly by trying to sabotage, compared to those who had to compete. We do not find evidence that women are punished more for competitive behavior than men, unless spectators have very strong gender norms.