Television Sports and Athlete Sex: Looking At the Differences in Watching Male and Female Athletes

Abstract

Women are an underrepresented population, particularly in the world of televised sports. Women are undervalued as athletes, due to their perceived lack of athletic skill and competitive spirit. This paper demonstrates, via physiological measures, men's sports garner more cognitive effort while it is women's sports that are actually remembered better. Also discussed is how men's and women's sports do not elicit any significant differences in physiological arousal, but still have differences in self-reported arousal.