Bernd J. Frick ^1* Alice Aguiar-Noury ² Nikolaus Risch ¹

• ¹ University of Paderborn, Paderborn, Germany
• ² Universidad de los Hemisferios, Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador

This study examines the relationship between physical activity and mental well-being among students not playing any sport ("couch potatoes"), recreational athletes and "dual career students", i.e. students who are at the same time elite athletes. It addresses three closely related, yet different questions: (i) Do couch potatoes, recreational and elite athletes differ in their level of affective well-being or happiness? (ii) Are there any differences in cognitive well-being or life satisfaction between these groups? and (iii) Are there any differences in risk preferences and attitudes? Our findings indicate that, first, elite athletes report higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction than recreational athletes and couch potatoes. Second, bothboth groups of athletes display a greater inclinationdisplay higher levels of risk tolerance than couch potatoes. Third, and most important, we find significant personality differences between elite athletes and the other two groups of students that drive most, yet not all of our results.