A new study from the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change (MiSoC) has found that mixed gender flat sharing leads to a significant decrease in competitiveness in male students.
The researchers, from the University of Essex and the University of Technology Sydney, followed a cohort of students in a UK university living in campus halls of residence. Dr Angus Holford told The Observer “We found living with more female flatmates means men’s competitiveness is more likely to go down over time. The flipside is that, with more male flatmates, it’s more likely to go up over time. It’s likely a group of colleagues will have a healthier, more productive relationship if there’s less competitiveness in the room.
“Competitiveness is not necessarily toxic. People who are more competitive are getting higher grades, they go on to have higher salaries – later, they have higher life satisfaction. So there is this sort of trade-off between what might be good for the individual and what might be good for organisations and society.”
“We’re showing that competitiveness is not a fixed trait – there’s not an innate, permanent difference between the sexes. It actually responds quite quickly to the environment,” he said.
There was no impact on female students.
Delavande, A., Del Bono, E., Holford, A., & Nolen, P.J (2024) Less Macho, More Mellow: The Malleability of Competitiveness. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4833785 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4833785
Read about this research in The Observer