The Gender Gap in the Enjoyment of Televised Sports

Does spectator gender exert an appreciable influence on the enjoyment of sports? Are men generally more intrigued with athletic competition, or might there be a gender gap in enjoyment that is specific to particular sports? The findings of the present investigation show that male and female spectators enjoy distinctly different types of sports. Males were found to be partial to football, ice hockey, basketball, soccer, baseball, boxing, and karate. Females, by contrast, expressed greater enjoyment of gymnastics, skiing, diving, and figure skating. The enjoyment differentiation by gender suggests that men extract gratification mostly from seeing athletic confrontations that emphasize combative coordination, whereas women are more gratified when seeing competition that avoids overt aggressiveness and highlights the stylish movement of individual bodies in terms of beauty.