There were clear differences in the way men and women initiate new members onto an athletic team. Women were as likely or nearly as likely to participate in some initiation activities as men, as shown on the table below. Men are consistently more likely than women to be subjected to any one of the questionable or unacceptable activities, except wearing embarrassing clothing. Men were notably more likely than women to be yelled, cursed, or sworn at as part of their initiation. Swimmers or divers and lacrosse, soccer, football, hockey and water polo players were significantly more likely to be subjected to a greater number of questionable and unacceptable initiation activities than any other athletes.
Football is the only sport that had a relatively low response rate among athletes.
Football players who did respond reported higher levels of hazing behavior for other college groups than for their own collegiate athletic team. Still, football players were more likely to be involved with most of the unacceptable initiation activities and the questionable activities, but not the alcohol-related activities. Overall, athletes in track, fencing, and golf were significantly less likely to be hazed. In addition, cross-country, basketball, rowing, and tennis were significantly less involved with alcohol and other unacceptable activities. NCAA division had no effect on the degree to which hazing was present.