Sex Differences in Motivation in NCAA Distance Runners

Abstract

Previous studies indicate that, on average, men are more competitive than women in most sports, including distance running. However, previous studies focused on recreational athletes, not elite ones. We will address this gap in the literature by recruiting several hundred NCAA distance runners to complete online questionnaires regarding their motivation, goals, training, and performance. We predict that male runners will report being more competitive and having a stronger desire to run professionally, whereas female runners will report a stronger interest in starting a non-running career. If these predictions are supported in distance running, a sport where men and women have highly similar professional prospects, it will constitute crucial evidence for the hypothesis that men are more predisposed to achieve in show-off domains such as sports. The show-off hypothesis has important implications for understanding crime, public health, and labor markets