Quote Originally Posted by Rhomagus View Post
Now I've only asked for sources once in this thread and I was wrong for doing so, but you're making a giant appeal to authority here if you don't back up this statement with a source.
It's not so much they feel better by being ahead of those around them. What the most recent of studies I'm aware of show is that people don't want those directly beneath them to get ahead of where they are. In fact, a person would rather see someone far behind them get a little further ahead than the have the people directly beneath them catch a break.

So if you reached rank 50 today and they announce that going from rank 1 to 20 just got easier, you don't really care. But if the announcement was that going from rank 40 to 50 just got easier, well, a picture says a thousand words:
http://i310.photobucket.com/albums/k...ar_/fuuuu-.jpg

Oh, and I even have a source for these crazy ideas I'm spouting:
https://www.economist.com/node/21525851?frsc=dg