There have been various studies exploring what happens when we move into a high performing team.  What happens to our self-perception however?  Does being surrounded by higher achiever make us doubt our own abilities?  Would being placed in a low performing team encourage us to have an inflated sense of worth?

That was the question posed by a recent study from the University of Konstanz as they monitored maths students who were placed in a variety of teams to test how their perceived mathematical abilities changed in each environment.

The researchers analyzed data from a cross-sectional survey and a couple of longitudinal studies that involved students from fifth to tenth grade.  In total, over 7,700 students took part, with the surveys designed to capture a range of positive and negative emotions alongside measures of achievement.

Respective status

The analysis appeared to show some clear results.  There was a clear positive boost to students’ self-esteem when they were high-achievers, but this boost tended to wither away when they were in a class of other high-achievers.  As such, if the high-achiever is in a class of lower-achievers, their emotional wellbeing tends to be much higher.

This quickly becomes a self-fulfilling cycle, with achievement influencing our emotions, and our emotions then influencing our achievement.  It’s something the authors believe schools need to take into account when allocating students to classes.

“It is understandable that parents want to see their children in a high-performing school environment. However, it is also important that parents and teaching staff are aware of the fact that it can be emotionally stressful, especially in the early days, if the child arrives in a particularly high-achieving environment,” they explain.

Whilst the study focuses on a school environment, it’s also a phenomenon with clear implications for the workplace.  Research has shown that our relative status at school has a clear impact on our future career.

Indeed, lower ranking pupils were also more likely to smoke, drink, have unprotected sex and engage in a range of bad behaviors. The authors believe this is because when we think we’re smarter, we reason that bad behavior carries much higher risk than when we believe we’re not so smart.

All of which perhaps provides some food for thought, both for teachers when they allocate students to a particular class, but also for managers when assigning employees to particular teams.