TY - JOUR
T1 - The Evolution of Sports
T2 - Exploring Parental Interest in Watching Sports
AU - Apostolou, Menelaos
AU - Zacharia, Marianna
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, Springer International Publishing.
PY - 2015/9
Y1 - 2015/9
N2 - Across different cultures and different times, people maintain a strong interest in watching other people, and especially, men playing sports. The present paper employs an evolutionary perspective in order to understand how selection forces have shaped this interest. In particular, it is hypothesized that individuals, and particularly men, have evolved an interest to watch other men competing in athletic contest in order to be able to identify useful allies and spouses for their daughters. On this basis, four predictions are derived: people are more interested in watching men than women competing; men are more interested in watching men than women competing; men with daughters are more interested in watching sports, and, finally, men with daughters are more interested in watching men than women competing. A study of 514 parents finds evidence consistent with all four predictions.
AB - Across different cultures and different times, people maintain a strong interest in watching other people, and especially, men playing sports. The present paper employs an evolutionary perspective in order to understand how selection forces have shaped this interest. In particular, it is hypothesized that individuals, and particularly men, have evolved an interest to watch other men competing in athletic contest in order to be able to identify useful allies and spouses for their daughters. On this basis, four predictions are derived: people are more interested in watching men than women competing; men are more interested in watching men than women competing; men with daughters are more interested in watching sports, and, finally, men with daughters are more interested in watching men than women competing. A study of 514 parents finds evidence consistent with all four predictions.
KW - Male-male competition
KW - Parental choice
KW - The evolution of sports
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85052605410&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s40806-015-0018-4
DO - 10.1007/s40806-015-0018-4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85052605410
SN - 2198-9885
VL - 1
SP - 155
EP - 162
JO - Evolutionary Psychological Science
JF - Evolutionary Psychological Science
IS - 3
ER -