Deaner Robert O, Mitchell Don
Department of Psychology, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI, USA.
Evol Psychol. 2011 Dec 17;9(4):600-21. doi: 10.1177/147470491100900410.
Recent studies indicate that more men than women run fast relative to sex- specific world records and that this sex difference has been historically stable in elite U.S. runners. These findings have been hypothesized to reflect an evolved male predisposition for enduring competitiveness in "show-off" domains. The current study tests this hypothesis in non-elite runners by analyzing 342 road races that occurred from 1981-2006, most in or near Buffalo, NY. Both absolutely and as a percentage of same-sex finishers, more men ran relatively fast in most races. During the 1980s, as female participation surged, the difference in the absolute number of relatively fast men and women decreased. However, this difference was stable for races that occurred after 1993. Since then, in any given race, about three to four times as many men as women ran relatively fast. The stable sex difference in relative performance shown here for non-elites constitutes new support for the hypothesis of an evolved male predisposition for enduring competitiveness.
最近的研究表明，相对于特定性别的世界纪录而言，男性比女性跑得更快，而且在美国优秀跑步运动员中，这种性别差异在历史上一直保持稳定。这些研究结果被假设为反映了男性在“炫耀”领域中具有持久竞争力的一种进化倾向。本研究通过分析1981年至2006年期间发生的342场公路赛（大多数在纽约州布法罗市或其附近），对非优秀跑步运动员进行了这一假设的测试。无论是绝对数量还是占同性完赛者的百分比，在大多数比赛中，跑得相对较快的男性都更多。在20世纪80年代，随着女性参赛人数的激增，跑得相对较快的男性和女性在绝对数量上的差异有所减小。然而，对于1993年之后举行的比赛，这种差异保持稳定。从那时起，在任何一场特定的比赛中，跑得相对较快的男性人数大约是女性的三到四倍。这里所显示的非优秀运动员在相对表现上稳定的性别差异，为男性具有持久竞争力的进化倾向这一假设提供了新的支持。
