Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

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 …