If you use show-off words like zymosis and quagga in Scrabble, chances are you’re a man, a new study suggests.
Research found men are much better than women at Scrabble because they’re more willing to focus their energies on winning rather than having fun.
Unlike male dominated games such as chess, there are generally more women at Scrabble competitions, but men still end up inevitably winning.
Men spent much more time analysing past games and practising anagrams – which gave them the winning edge in tournaments, the study found
The last ten Scrabble world champions have all been men – even though just as many women enjoy the game.
‘It’s not intuitively obvious why there should be a gender difference in Scrabble’ author Jerad Moxley from the University of Miami told The Times.
In the 2004 and 2008 US National Scrabble tournaments, researchers from the University of Miami asked almost 300 participants about their training and then examined their game ratings.
They found that although women spent more time playing the game they treated it like a hobby where the objective was to have fun and not win.
‘The National Tournament divides players into six ranked divisions, and males dominate at the highest levels of performance’, researchers wrote in the paper published in Psychological Research.
‘In 2002, 86 per cent of competitors in the division with the best Scrabble players were male, while in the division with the lowest performance only 31 per cent of competitors were male.
‘Given that most players in Scrabble tournaments are female, the higher ratio of female to male players cannot explain the male advantages in Scrabble—in fact, one would predict females should be more prevalent than men at the top level’, they said.
In terms of hours put in, there was no difference between men and women, but researchers found there was a difference in how these competitors were using those hours.
Scrabble champion Brett Smitheram wants to get Scrabble classified as a sport. The best way to train is to look at past games and replicate the moves of winners – a tactic which has so far been better achieved by men, researchers found
Women spend more time playing Scrabble but took a very different approach to their training, according to the study.
‘Gender differences in performance were fully mediated by lower engagement in purposeful practice by females and by their rated preference for playing games of Scrabble—an activity where more extended engagement is not associated with increased Scrabble performance’, authors found.
Men spent much more time analysing past games and practising anagrams – which gave them the winning edge in tournaments.
‘There’s not a lot of money in Scrabble; it’s not like chess,’ said Dr Moxley.
‘So why would you even want to be the best Scrabble player in the world? You could argue it doesn’t make sense.’
He said the gender gap does not indicate there is a huge gap in ability but rather reflects a gender difference in the approach to training.
The believes the best way to train is to look at past games and replicate the moves of winners – a tactic which has so far been better achieved by men.