Men and women behave differently in many situations, but do these differences persist among highly successful people in their fields: athletes or top managers?
A new study compared 1100 student-athletes involved in distance running in terms of competitiveness. The purpose of the experiment is to find out whether differences in the competition category persist in the subgroup of the fastest runners.
Scientists have chosen this discipline because it is equally popular with men and women, and men do not have financial advantages over women. Competitiveness was measured using surveys that looked at race motivation, training volume, and desire to continue performing at the highest level after training. The best runners were those who were in the top 25% of the results in the 5000 meters races. It turned out that the gender differences in competitiveness were just as great among the runners in the first division (the strongest) as among the athletes in the third division (the weakest).
The study was conducted on a large sample of participants and very reliably revealed gender differences in levels of competitiveness. However, it is important to keep in mind that there are large individual differences – some individual athletes may be more competitive than most men. The researchers tried to evaluate other possible reasons for the difference in competitiveness. Hypotheses that female runners are more likely to get injured or spend more time caring for children have not been confirmed. However, women paid more attention to studies than men, which shows differences in life priorities.
Scientists believe that these results extend far beyond running competitions. “Of course, you can’t just transfer these results to other areas of activity,” says study leader Robert Deaner. “Yet they echo data from other studies that show that even among senior executives, men tend to compete for recognition and status, while women are more interested in collective interests.”
R. Deaner et al. «Does the sex difference in competitiveness decrease in selective sub-populations? A test with intercollegiate distance runners». PeerJ, онлайн-публикация от 21 апреля 2015.