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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Athletics

Grand Valley State University

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Does The Sex Difference In Competitiveness Decrease In Selective Sub-Populations? A Test With Intercollegiate Distance Runners, Robert O. Deaner, Aaron Lowen, William Rogers, Eric Saksa Apr 2015

Does The Sex Difference In Competitiveness Decrease In Selective Sub-Populations? A Test With Intercollegiate Distance Runners, Robert O. Deaner, Aaron Lowen, William Rogers, Eric Saksa

Funded Articles

Sex differences in some preferences and motivations are well established, but it is unclear whether they persist in selective sub-populations, such as expert financial decision makers, top scientists, or elite athletes. We addressed this issue by studying competitiveness in 1,147 varsity intercollegiate distance runners. As expected, across all runners, men reported greater competitiveness with two previously validated instruments, greater competitiveness on a new elite competitiveness scale, and greater training volume, a known correlate of competitiveness. Among faster runners, the sex difference decreased for one measure of competitiveness but did not decrease for the two other competitiveness measures or either measure …


Sex Differences In Sports Across 50 Societies, Robert O. Deaner, Brandt A. Smith Jan 2012

Sex Differences In Sports Across 50 Societies, Robert O. Deaner, Brandt A. Smith

Peer Reviewed Articles

Sports have been frequently explored in cross-cultural studies, yet scant attention has been paid to female participation. Here we coded the occurrence of sports and related activities for males and females in the societies comprising the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) probability sample. We then tested several predictions derived from evolutionary theory. As predicted, in all 50 societies with documented sports, there were more male sports than female sports; hunting and combat sports were almost exclusively male activities; and the sex difference in sports was greater in patriarchal than in nonpatriarchal societies. These results show that a robust sex difference …