Hypercompetitiveness and Loser’s Consent

Abstract Electoral democracy rests on the conferral of Loser’s Consent. The Capitol insurrection of January 6, 2021—and the widespread sympathy for it that endures among Republican citizens and elected officials—can be understood as an unprecedented denial of that Consent. We hypothesize that insurrectionist sympathies among 2020 election losers are structured in part by hypercompetitiveness—a psychological need to win at all costs. Using original survey data collected in the spring of 2022, we find strong suggestive support for our hypothesis. Many of the Americans who fail to condemn the Capitol riot may not be simply knee-jerk partisans, well-intentioned victims of propaganda, or sycophants in thrall to a would-be authoritarian leader. Substantiating the anxieties of many observers, those people may instead be unwilling to abide by democratic rules if it means they have to lose.