I sincerely do not like competitive environments. I thrive on collaboration and people who lift each other up.

I have four people in my life, my sister, my classmate, my coworker and my mom, who think it is fun to compete and cut people down. They often gloat and tell people how inferior they are.

I tell them I am not interested in competing, that there is nothing to compete over, that there is no competition between us. I am being sincere.

All three take this to be a passive aggressive way of telling them I think I am so superior that there is no point in trying to compete because I already "won". This result in even more aggressive behavior.

I am at a loss. It seems that no matter how explicitly clear I try and make it that I don't want to compete, they try to create a hostile sense of competition

What is the best way of navigating this