To me, this is explained by the idea that we will be competing, not cooperating, with the ultimate winner.
If I am observing the contest and not participating, I would want the weaker party to win so that the remaining population dominates me less. If David gets lucky and beats Goliath, I only have to compete with David in future contests - if Goliath wins, I may have to go up against him next time.
Intuitively, this seems to explain the tendency quite well - a political victory by, let's say, Canada over the US, feels like it would "take them down a peg" and reduce the power imbalance between the UK (where I... (read more)
To me, this is explained by the idea that we will be competing, not cooperating, with the ultimate winner.
If I am observing the contest and not participating, I would want the weaker party to win so that the remaining population dominates me less. If David gets lucky and beats Goliath, I only have to compete with David in future contests - if Goliath wins, I may have to go up against him next time.
Intuitively, this seems to explain the tendency quite well - a political victory by, let's say, Canada over the US, feels like it would "take them down a peg" and reduce the power imbalance between the UK (where I... (read more)