Ryan and Ben are best friends. Ryan regularly runs marathons and is a member of the Marathon Runners Club at his university. Ben also wants to join the club, but he is not a very strong runner. Ben decides to start running every day so that he can participate in marathons and become a member of the club. Given this information, the Marathon Runners Club can be categorized as a(n) .

The answer is aspirational reference group.

Explanation:

Aspirational reference groups refers to groups of people with whom a person can identify, so he or she starts imitating their behaviour in order to become like them in the future. The person might or might not know the people from th group personally.

In contrast, a reference group is simply a group of people with which a person may be compared to.

Aspirational Reference Group

Explanation:

Aspirational reference group is a group which is made up of individuals with the same aims and objectives in which a person wish to join the group by trying to do what the group members were doing in term of their attitude and behaviour.

Just as in the case of Ben who his interested in joining a group in which he is not a member but trying to copy the way Ryan run so that he can participate in marathons and become a member of Ryan club.

Therefore Marathon Runners Club can be categorized as a ASPIRATION REFERENCE GROUP