For sports fans, watching a game, be it top-flight football, the Olympics or your favourite local team, can be a rollercoaster ride: the highs of victory, the lows of defeat and all the stress in between. (Also Read | Study reveals role of gut microbiome in autism, providing new diagnostic insights)
Thankfully, the overall effect should be positive, as studies have shown that people who watch sports feel happier than those who don’t, and this likely has to do with the social aspect of watching sports.
Happiness refers to a person’s psychological state – how good a person feels. People who are happier tend to have better physical health and live longer than those who are less happy.
Is watching sports good for your mental health?
The study, conducted by our group at Anglia Ruskin University, led by Helen, used data from 7,209 adults aged 16-85 years living in England who took part in the Taking Part Survey, commissioned by the UK government.
People who watched British sports matches in the last year were found to be more satisfied with their lives, see their life as more valuable, and feel less lonely than those who didn’t. This is consistent with other research showing that people who watch sports at least once a year experience less depression than those who don’t.
If you can’t attend a live event, watching sports on TV or online can also have health benefits: Research shows that people who watch sports on TV or online are less likely to be depressed than non-watchers, and the more frequently they watch sports the less likely they are to experience depression.
People who watch sports tend to report greater life satisfaction than non-watchers, whether they watch in person, on TV, or online.
All of these findings are correlational, so we don’t know which factors influence the others, or whether they’re both influenced by other factors (such as wealth or number of friends), but social identity theory and brain imaging studies suggest that watching sports may be a major factor in increasing happiness above other factors.
The positive effects of watching sports
The positive effects of sports viewing appear to be related to social identity: we seek connection by forming in-groups, communities of people with whom we have something in common. These communities form part of our identity and through which we gain social and emotional support.
One example of in-group formation is the community we share with others who support the same sports team: research has shown that people who feel strongly attached to a sports team are more likely to feel emotionally supported by their fellow fans, which in turn increases their life satisfaction.
Through our shared social identity, we also share the social and emotional benefits of success within our group. Researchers at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium call this “basking in the glory.”
But when our team loses, we are more likely to distance ourselves from the team to protect ourselves from the negative social and psychological effects – in other words, we “cut off reflected failure.”
The role of social processes in linking sports viewing and well-being has been demonstrated in a Japanese brain imaging study that found that areas of the brain associated with psychological reward (feeling good) were more active when participants watched a popular spectator sport such as baseball than when they watched a less popular spectator sport such as golf.
So the social benefits of watching sports aren’t necessarily limited to going to a live event with friends and family. Whether you watch sports in person or from the comfort of your own home, you can enjoy the sense of community that your favorite athletes provide, and in turn, the psychological benefits.
Whether you’re cheering on your team at home or at a game venue, you can enjoy the joys and sorrows of being a sports fan while knowing that it’s a good thing for you, as long as you share the experience with others.
This article has been published from a news agency feed without any modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
Get daily updates on fashion, Taylor Swift, health, festivals, travel, love, recipes and other latest lifestyle news on Hindustan Times website and app.
