The perception is that academics trump athletics in the quest for success in the workplace. But whether an applicant was a quarterback or a point guard, past participation in competitive team sports marks a winner in the competition for better jobs, according to a new Cornell University study.
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“Participation in competitive sports ‘spills over’ to occupationally advantageous traits that persist across a person’s life,” says Kevin M. Kniffin, PhD, postdoctoral research associate at Cornell’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and lead researcher on the study.
Research by Kniffin and coauthors Brian Wansink and Mitsuru Shimizu, published online in the August 2014 issue, Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, shows that people who played a varsity high school sport are expected to be more self-confident, have more self-respect, and demonstrate more leadership than people who were part of other extracurricular activities.
For example, four presidents (Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Gerald Ford, an All-American) played varsity college football; Woodrow Wilson and George H.W. Bush played varsity baseball; and Barack Obama played varsity basketball for Occidental College.
Former varsity athletes also reported significantly higher participation in “prosocial” volunteerism and charitable activities, said Kniffin.
I don’t think these findings are at all surprising. Teamwork is such a big part of so many jobs, and athletics can instill confidence and leadership skills.