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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

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.

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