By Hunter Moore ’15

The typical stereotype is that boys are more competitive than girls. The story goes that boys will do anything to win a game by as many points as possible, while girls will not wish to hurt their opponents’ feelings and make them feel badly about losing by a lot.

This perception of the difference in competitiveness between boys and girls isn’t necessarily all wrong. Studies do show that boys, more so than girls, perform to win in competitive situations and games. However, it is not that something naturally makes them more competitive. Rather, culture and upbringing best explain boys’ competitive fire.

Starting at a young age, many parents push their male children into taking risks and acting competitively in sports, which stays with them through adulthood. On the opposite end of the spectrum, young girls are encouraged to remain more cautious, leading them to take fewer risks and act less competitively in their adult life, according to research done by Uri Gneezy, a professor at the University of California at San Diego and the University of Amsterdam.

Cultural expectations also contribute to the competitive behavior of boys and girls. When girls are around boys, they tend to work harder to maintain their gender identity, which would mean being more sensitive and less competitive. Boys, on the other hand, try to act even more masculine when around girls.

In a study run by Gneezy, a group of 140 boys and girls were tested based on their running. When a boy had to race a girl, the boys performed significantly better than when they ran alone, whereas there was no difference in times for girls when they ran in competition or when they ran alone.

This is not saying that all girls are not competitive; for example, tennis great Serena Williams is overwhelmingly more competitive than the average male on the tennis court. Girls can be just as or more competitive as boys, but because of culture and upbringing boys are typically more competitive.