4 ms·
The paper is not about nerds vs. jocks. It's about athletes vs. non-athletes. There are many athletes that are nerds, and many non-athletes that are not nerds.
by andrewprock 3y ago
The paper is not about nerds vs. jocks. It's about athletes vs. non-athletes. There are many athletes that are nerds, and many non-athletes that are not nerds.
However, I do give NBER full credit for scoring high on the clickbait metric. If you download the actual paper, the word "nerd" only appears in the title of the pdf.
(curiously, and as evidence that nerds don't really go to Harvard, they list Aerospace Engineering as an offered major, but with a participation rate of 0.00% across male/female, athlete/non.)
- aleph_minus_one 3y ago> There are many athletes that are nerds, and many non-athletes that are not nerds. "Nerd" is typically associated to be deeply into scientific topics and rather introverted (if they are rather extraverted, they are typically geeks), but also often (though not always) socially unsecure (sometimes even awkward) and also sometimes (though not always) unathletic (if nerds are athletic, they often have a tendency to be rather attracted to sometimes obsure, and often non-mainstream forms of sport). Thus, I would rather be surprised if there were many athletes who are nerds.
- andrewprock 3y agoAt a highly competitive institution like Harvard, I would expect the nerd distribution between athletes and non-athletes to be much less "stereotypical" than in the broader society.