Enjoyment of televised sporting events: Evidence of a gender gap

Abstract

This investigation provides further evidence of gender‐specific differences in enjoyment of televised sporting events. Male viewers were found to be partial to combative and mechanized sports such as boxing, ice hockey, and basketball, but they disliked figure skating. Female viewers, in contrast, expressed greater enjoyment of stylistic sports, such as figure skating, and disliked boxing. In other words, male spectators love the sport (boxing) that women despise and men despise the sport (figure skating) that women love. Preference‐defining perceptions of athletic competition were also recorded.