Male UK university students are ‘less macho’ when sharing flats with women

London: Living with female flatmates at university makes male students less “macho”, new research from Essex University and Australia’s University of Technology Sydney has found.

The study, which followed a cohort of students at a UK university living in campus halls of residence over a one-year period, revealed that men living in mixed flats with female flatmates exhibited a significant decrease in competitiveness. There was no effect on women.

“The paper found living with more female flatmates means men’s competitiveness is more likely to go down over time,” said Dr Angus Holford, senior research fellow at Essex University and co-author of the research paper. “The flipside is that, with more male flatmates, it’s more likely to go up over time.”

Hyper-competitiveness among male students can have negative repercussions in the future; for example, leading to dysfunctional workplaces such as those exposed at Nike and ride-sharing company Uber. Masculinity contest culture can result in reduced innovation, increased bullying and harassment, and elevated rates of illness and depression among both male and female workers.

“It’s likely a group of colleagues will have a healthier, more productive relationship if there’s less competitiveness in the room,” Holford said.

Competitiveness, however, is not always a negative quality, he added. “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,” he said. “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.”

The study involved assessing participants twice; once when they were in their first year of university and again when they entered their second. To measure their competitiveness, students were asked to complete an identical paid task where they could choose between either earning a fixed amount or a higher sum, depending on whether or not they won a competition.

Holford said that the new research has also shown that there is not an inborn gap in competitiveness between men and women, and neither is it an instinctive quality.

“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.

The new findings come as hundreds of thousands of young people are preparing to move into halls of residence or house shares before the new university year. Last Thursday’s A-level results were the strongest in England since 2010, and nationally 82% of applicants were able to get into their first choice university.

Most incoming university students will be hoping to enter halls of residence as term begins in September, but an acute shortage of accommodation may make the move more difficult for some. In recent years, UK university towns have grappled with a housing crisis, with students in some of the most popular university cities such as Bristol being housed miles away from campus in different towns.