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1 GENDER DIFFERENCES IN COMPETITIVENESS Replicating Gender Differences in Self-Reported Competitiveness Eshanya Gupta University of California, San Diego

2 GENDER DIFFERENCES IN COMPETITIVENESS Abstract This study examined gender differences in self-reported competitiveness among 671 participants (481 female, 179 male, 8 nonbinary), of ages ranging from 16 to 47. The study attempts to replicate the study done by Houston et al. (2005) and was conducted in the form of an online survey based on the Revised Competitiveness Index (RCI). Men reported significantly higher scores on the survey, implying that men are more willing to compete and enjoy competition more than women. Understanding the gender gap in competitiveness can help companies develop incentives and opportunities for men and women that align with their respective responses to competition, influence classroom structure and teaching, and give us a deeper insight into the various factors that drive men and women to compete.

3 GENDER DIFFERENCES IN COMPETITIVENESS Replicating Gender Differences in Self-Reported Competitiveness Competitiveness, or the “desire to beat” (Triplett, 1898) has been a focal point for psychology and economics research for years, with new studies uncovering more and more factors that influence scores. Gender differences regarding competitiveness, specifically, have been a point of extensive research in several studies, both in the laboratory and in the field. Gender (male and female) differences in competitiveness seem to be explained by two major approaches: sexual selection (Buss, 1995), and social roles and stereotypes (Ridgeway & Diekema, 1992) The sexual selection theory states that men and women developed different characteristic adaptations when their surrounding conditions differed (e.g. reproduction), whereas, when men and women faced the same adaptive challenges, they evolved similar methods of adapting to them (e.g. an affinity for sweet and fatty foods) (Buss, 1995). Sexual selection designates men as the more competitive sex, due to competition among men to gain access to women in order to ensure greater reproductive success (Buss, 1995). Accordingly, women are said to be less competitive due to their tendency to nurture children and look for long-term mates. Alternatively, many argue that these differences may arise due to the way society has been structured to accommodate men in positions of more power, causing men to have more dominant behaviour as compared to women, who have historically been placed in roles of relatively less power (Ridgeway & Diekema, 1992). Social structuralists claim that men are more competitive due to their history of being in roles of higher power and status, leading societal expectations and stereotypes to play a role in which sex is more competitive (Houston, 2005). Several studies have found no significant difference between the competitiveness in either gender (Walters et al., 1998), while others document a change in competitiveness from

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4 GENDER DIFFERENCES IN COMPETITIVENESS single sex tournaments to ones with both genders competing against each other (Niederle & Vesterlund, 2011). Competitiveness results also vary in sports with little difference in competitiveness between the genders; gender differences in educational fields have been observed, with men more likely to pursue more academically challenging programs (Bengtsson et al. 2005). Research has been conducted under various settings and circumstances, looking at both performance and the willingness to compete. A study by Neiderle and Vesterlund (2007) revealed no difference between men's and women’s performances in a task under a non- competitive setting, but a significant difference between men's and women’s willingness to enter into a competitive tournament structure for the same task. Many more men than women chose to enter the tournament, suggesting that women avoid competition while men embrace it, even after controlling for overconfidence, risk, and feedback aversion (Niederle & Vesterlund, 2007). Competitiveness has also been studied for competitiveness against self (Apicella et al., 2017), showing that while there is a difference in competitiveness between genders when competing against others, men and women are equally competitive when competing against their own previous scores. Self-competition was also followed by a boost in the performance of the participants (Apicella et al., 2017). Regional differences may have a significant impact on competitiveness. Cultural differences from countries with individualistic and collectivistic societies show differences in the level of “enjoyment of competition”, with students in individual-focused cultures like the United States of America scoring higher on the scale than students from more collectivist cultures like China and Japan (Houston et al., 2005). This study also found that men consistently scored higher than women across the three samples, but cross-cultural differences seem to have an impact on certain aspects of competitiveness.

5 GENDER DIFFERENCES IN COMPETITIVENESS Age too, seems to be an important factor when meaning competitiveness. Flory et al. (2018) found that while a gap in competitiveness by gender exists between young men and women, this gap appears to disappear when older populations are measured. Mature women were found to be just as competitive as men, and much more competitive than younger women, while men did not show a significant difference in competitiveness by age. This study seeks to replicate the study conducted by Houston et al. (2005), looking at gender differences in self-reported competitiveness. The study hypothesises that results will vary with participant age, and while men will score higher among students and younger adults, this gap will diminish among older and mature participants. Method Participants There were 671 participants (481 female, 179 male, 8 nonbinary), of ages ranging from 16 to 47 (M = 19.96, SD = 2.16) . Only participants that reported as male or female were used in the analysis. The participants, primarily undergraduate students of varying ethnicities, were selected by convenience sampling from a large university in the Western United States (287 Asian, Asian American, 165 Hispanic, Latina/o, 124 White, 57 Mixed, 20 Other, 15 Black, African American and 3 Undisclosed). Materials The Revised Competitiveness Index (RCI) (Houston et al., 2002) was used. It is a 14- item survey that measures competitiveness in two factors: enjoyment of competition and contentiousness, with response options on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from ‘1: Strongly Disagree’ to ‘5: Strongly Agree’. The RCI demonstrates construct validity (Houston et al., 2002) and good test-retest reliability (r = .85) (Harris & Houston, 2010).

6 GENDER DIFFERENCES IN COMPETITIVENESS Procedure Participants clicked a link to a Google Forms survey to complete an online version of the Revised Competitiveness Index (RCI) (Houston et al., 2002). Independent-samples t tests were used to determine if there was a statistically significant difference between men and women in self- reported enjoyment of competition, contentiousness, and overall competitiveness. Results Men reported significantly higher scores on each part of the RCI survey: Scores for Enjoyment of competition were t (658) = -5.00 , p < .001, Cohen’s d -0.44 , Contentiousness was t (355.14) = -2.59 , p = .01, Cohen’s d -0.22 , and the Overall competitiveness was t (358.68) = -5.22 , p < .001, Cohen’s d = -0.43 , indicating a small effect size for all three. Table 1 Descriptive Statistics for Competitiveness scores Men (M) vs. Women (W) Gender Enjoyment M ( SD ) Contentiousness M ( SD ) Overall M ( SD ) Female 28.64(6.68 ) 14.36(4.11) 43.00(8.86) Male 31.49(6.04 ) 15.22(3.66) 46.72(7.81) Discussion

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7 GENDER DIFFERENCES IN COMPETITIVENESS Men reported significantly higher scores on all three parts of the RCI survey (enjoyment of competition, contentiousness, and overall competitiveness), supporting our prediction that men are more competitive than women. The aforementioned results are consistent with previous results of research done on gender and competitiveness over the years (Gupta et al., 2013). The literature indicates that a gender gap in competitiveness does exist, and is influenced by a variety of factors including age, ethnicity, and occupation. Many of these factors can be explained by sexual selection and societal structure: evolutionarily, men were seen as the more competitive sex, due to competition among men to gain access to women to ensure greater reproductive success (Buss, 1995), making women less competitive due to their tendency to nurture children and look for long-term mates; Social structure suggests that men are more competitive due to their history of being in roles of higher power and status, leading societal expectations to influence competitiveness between men and women. Our study suggests a significant gap between both genders regarding competitiveness, but understanding which of the two theories causes the aforementioned gap will require further research. It may also be prudent to keep in mind that while this study found a significant gap between the competitiveness scores of males and females, several studies have also found no significant difference in scores (Walters et al., 1998). This may imply a need to take a closer look at the methods employed and the participants of the studies conducted. This study is limited by its convenience sampling of exclusively American college students and is therefore unable to take into consideration other influential factors like age (Flory, 2018) and ethnicity (Houston et al., 2005). Competitiveness results also vary in sports with little difference in competitiveness between the genders unlike gender differences in educational fields which suggest that men are more likely to pursue more academically

8 GENDER DIFFERENCES IN COMPETITIVENESS challenging programs (Bengtsson et al., 2005). Scores also seem to vary based on how the experiment is structured, with women showing less willingness to compete than men in a tournament structure (Neiderle and Vesterlund, 2007). Men and women have also been observed to be equally competitive when competing against their own previous scores, indicating that competition against self too, could be examined (Apicella et al., 2017). To generalise these findings to a wider population, further research would be required with a more diverse sample. Future research could be conducted taking one or both of these factors into consideration to gain a broader understanding of gender differences in competitiveness and what could influence them. The study of competitiveness is quite prevalent in behavioural sciences as well as economics research and has wide implications in the real world. Understanding the gender gap in competitiveness can help companies develop incentives and opportunities for men and women that align with their respective responses to competition (Saccardo et al., 2017), influence classroom structure and teaching, and give us a deeper insight into the various factors that drive men and women to compete.

9 GENDER DIFFERENCES IN COMPETITIVENESS References Apicella, C. L., Demiral, E. E., & Mollerstrom, J. (2017). No gender difference in willingness to compete when competing against self. American Economic Review , 107 (5), 136–140. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.p20171019 Bengtsson, M., Eriksson, J., & Kock, S. (2005). The importance of competition and cooperation for the exploration of innovation opportunities. Managing Opportunity Development in Business Networks (pp. 49–66). Palgrave Macmillan UK . https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230379695_3 Buser, T., Niederle, M., & Oosterbeek, H. (2014). Gender, competitiveness, and career choices. The Quarterly Journal of Economics , 129 (3), 1409–1447. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qju009 Buser, T., Peter, N., & Wolter, S. C. (2017). Gender, competitiveness, and study choices in high school: Evidence from Switzerland. American Economic Review , 107 (5), 125–130. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.p20171017 Buss, D. M. (1995). Psychological sex differences. American Psychologist . Datta Gupta, N., Poulsen, A., & Villeval, M. C. (2013). Gender matching and competitiveness: Experimental evidence. Economic Inquiry , 51 (1), 816–835. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465- 7295.2011.00378.x Flory, J. A., Gneezy, U., Leonard, K. L., & List, J. A. (2018). Gender, age, and competition: A disappearing gap? Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization , 150 , 256–276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2018.03.027 Grosse, N., & Riener, G. (2010). Explaining gender differences in competitiveness: Gender-task stereotypes. Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Max-Planck-Institute of Economics, Jena Economic Research Papers . Harris, P. B., & Houston, J. M. (2010). A reliability analysis of the Revised Competitiveness Index. Psychological Reports , 106 (3), 870–874. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.106.3.870-874

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10 GENDER DIFFERENCES IN COMPETITIVENESS Houston, J., Harris, P., McIntire, S., & Francis, D. (2002). Revising the Competitiveness Index using factor analysis. Psychological Reports , 90 (1), 31–34. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.2002.90.1.31 Houston, J. M., Harris, P. B., Moore, R., Brummett, R., & Kametani, H. (2005). Competitiveness among Japanese, Chinese, and American undergraduate students. Psychological Reports , 97 (1), 205–212. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.97.1.205-212 Niederle, M., & Vesterlund, L. (2007). Do women shy away from competition? do men compete too much? Quarterly Journal of Economics . Niederle, M., & Vesterlund, L. (2011). Gender and competition. Annual Review of Economics , 3 (1), 601–630. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-economics-111809-125122 Ridgeway, C. L., & Diekema, D. (1992). Are gender differences status differences? Gender, Interaction, and Inequality (pp. 157–180). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757- 2199-7_7 Saccardo, S., Pietrasz, A., & Gneezy, U. (2018a). On the size of the gender difference in competitiveness. Management Science , 64 (4), 1541–1554. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2673 Triplett, N. (1898). The dynamogenic factors in pacemaking and competition. The American Journal of Psychology , 9 (4), 507–533. https://doi.org/10.2307/1412188 Walters, A. E., Stuhlmacher, A. F., & Meyer, L. L. (1998). Gender and negotiator competitiveness: A meta-analysis. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes , 76 (1), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.1998.2797

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