One-upmanship

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One-upmanship is the systematic and conscious practice of making one's associates feel inferior and thereby gaining the status of being "one-up" on them.

The term originated as the title of a book by Stephen Potter, a follow-up to the Gamesmanship and Lifemanship titles in his series of tongue-in-cheek self-help books, and film and television derivatives, that teach various "ploys" to achieve this.

Viewed seriously, it is a phenomenon of group dynamics that can have significant effects in the management field: for instance, manifesting in office politics.

The term has been extended to a generic, often punning, extension upmanship used for any assertion of superiority: for instance, Photon upmanship, Wine Upmanship, Native Upmanship, and so on.

[edit] Fictional characters with one-upmanship

Within comic strips, Topper from Dilbert and Clem from Rose is Rose are one-uppers.

Used in a sentence: Chris one-uped Scott when he replied that not only had he heard of the book, he has already read most of the stories years ago.

Illusionists Robert Angier and Alfred Borden are in a competive one-upmanship in the film The Prestige.