Beauty and the Beast: Authoritarianism and gender roles of Israeli footballers, basketballers, non-athletes, and their wives

•Positive relations among RWA, AWS, & masculinity.•Highest RWA, masculinity, and religiosity levels of footballers.•RWA & religiosity levels of footballers are higher than those of their wives.•RWA & religiosity of footballers’ wives are higher compared to the other 2 groups.

This study quantitatively compared authoritarianism and gender roles of 51 Israeli football players, 50 basketball players, 41 non-athletes and their wives (mean age = 27 years). As hypothesized, we found significant positive intercorrelations among RWA, anti-feminist attitudes, masculine traits, and interest in male-typical occupational and hobby preferences among men. Football players were more authoritarian, anti-feminist, religious, supportive of the political right, masculine, and interested in male-typical occupations and hobbies. The greatest authoritarianism, feminism, political right attitudes, and religiosity differences were found between the football players and their wives, and the football players’ wives were significantly more authoritarian, anti-feminist, and politically rightist, than both the wives of the basketball players and those of the non-athletes. Football is discussed as a politically right wing subculture that perpetuates traditional gender roles.