> The reward you get is learning that hard work is its own reward.

Maybe for some people the internal feeling is good enough, for others, some token (however worthless you might think it is) works.

Why make people feel bad when its so easy to make them feel good?

Maybe because the goal isn't feeling good?

Found the boomer. You're right, the goal is to feel disappointed. Isn't that what your generation was about, "Disappointment builds character" and all that toxic nonsense?

often, that is literally the goal. and that’s ok.

> Why make people feel bad when its so easy to make them feel good?

Isn't the answer to this question point of the thread?

Participation trophies aren't just about tokens. Everyone who runs a race can get a shirt or something to show they were there. This kind of thing has always been around. Participation trophies are for protecting people from knowledge that there were winners and losers in a competition and that they are one of the losers.

I don't know who's getting that message from participation trophies, but I certainly understood winning and losing when I played organized sports as a kid.

When I did sports as a kid I constantly finished close to last. (Just had not one bit of talent and/or genetics)

I was very aware of that fact and nevertheless I went and participated. Mainly because my parents encouraged my personal progress and celebrated small victories and effort.

The particular sport I did also provided small tokens (usually a slightly "fancy" certificate, sometimes a cap or shirt or sth)

Did that help me become good at that particular sport? No not at all.

But the mindset of curiosity and going for your personal best even if others are better did help me later in live.

Preservation goes a long way and encouraging kids to do their best is not a bad thing. Keep it grounded in reality though ("You did good today, great process . Others will make that their career but you showed up and put in the work which is good by itself")

> Participation trophies are for protecting people from knowledge that there were winners and losers in a competition and that they are one of the losers.

Have you ever seen a participation trophy?

I have some from youth sports. They're a tenth the size of the actual placement trophies. They were not an attempt to fool people.

> They were not an attempt to fool people.

That's exactly what they are. The whole reason People started pushing them was to pursue an agenda to affect developmental psychology. Perhaps you are misreading my point, as are others who seem to equate not being a loser with first place. A third place trophy is not fooling anyone that the winner is equal to the first place winner either. Participation trophies allow children to accumulate a room full of trophies and praise from relatives.

If it's very clearly distinguished from placement trophies to everyone involved, then where's the deception?

I see you want to come over to my house next week and paint the walls.

Od course I am not paying anything because hard work is its own reward.

What? No!

I can just watch you paint the walls and get credit for just showing up.

This whole thing got me thinking about my time in Panama. It was a combat zone but we weren’t doing war stuff so didn’t get combat patches even though we qualified because the 82nd doesn’t give out participation trophies. Hell, they were talking about not giving us Combat Infantry Badges for the Gulf War even though we were running ops in Iraq before the ground war started because they all surrendered once it did. Though…I used to call my CIB “my participation trophy” when I was in the reserves years later.

Imagine painting somebody's walls and being given a participation trophy lol.