ABSTRACT
The decrease in variety that mimicry delivers also brings the judges in repeated contests the same diffi culty judges face in the fi nals of hierarchical competitions, as noted in the previous chapter: when contestants become increasingly similar, their relative merit becomes increasingly diffi cult to assess. Hoping to overcome this diffi culty, judges frequently rely on a short-term strategy that produces disastrous long-term consequences. It is the strategy of escalating or proliferating merit criteria, captured in the provocative 1959 fi lm, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? and known to competitors as raising the bar.
