Watching sports is good for your wellbeing

Whether you are a sports fan following top-flight football, the Olympic Games or a beloved local side, the experience can feel like a rollercoaster.

Victory brings extraordinary highs, defeat can be disheartening, and there are plenty of tense moments in between.

Watching sports and wellbeing

Fortunately, the overall effect is likely to be positive. Research indicates that people who watch sport have greater wellbeing than those who do not, probably because of the social side of following sport.

Wellbeing refers to an individual's psychological state, or how well they feel. Those with higher wellbeing generally enjoy better physical health and longer lives than those with lower wellbeing.

Our research group at Anglia Ruskin University, led by Helen, analysed data from 7,209 adults aged 16-85 in England who took part in the UK government's Taking Part Survey.

We discovered that UK residents who had attended a live sporting event during the previous year were more satisfied with their lives, considered their lives more worthwhile and felt less lonely than those who had not attended one.

These results are consistent with other research showing that people who watch sport in person at least once a year experience fewer depressive symptoms than people who do not.

The benefits of watching sport at home

Unable to attend a live event? Watching sport on television or online may also support your wellbeing.

Studies have found that people who watched sport on TV or the internet were less depressed than non-viewers. Depressive symptoms were still less likely among those who watched sport more frequently.

People who follow sport are also more likely to say that their lives feel more fulfilling than those who do not, whether they watch in person, on TV or online.

All of these findings are correlational. This means we cannot know for certain which factor affects the other, or whether both could be shaped by a separate influence, such as wealth or the number of friends a person has.

Nevertheless, social identity theory and brain-imaging research suggest that watching sport itself, rather than other influences, could be the main source of the wellbeing boost.

Social identity, sport and wellbeing

The beneficial effect of watching sport is likely to stem from social identity. We look for connection by creating in-groups: communities of people with whom we have something in common. Such communities become part of who we are and offer social and emotional support.

The community formed by supporters of the same sports teams is one example of an in-group. Research has found that people who strongly identified with a sports team were more likely to feel emotionally supported by other fans, increasing their life satisfaction.

Our shared social identity also means that we share the social and emotional rewards of our group's successes. Researchers at KU Leuven in Belgium have called this "basking in reflected glory".

When a team loses, however, supporters are more likely to separate themselves from it in order to avoid negative social and psychological effects: "cutting off reflected failure".

A Japanese brain-imaging study demonstrates the importance of social processes in connecting sports spectatorship with wellbeing.

It showed that brain regions linked to psychological rewards, or feeling good, were more active when participants watched a widely popular spectator sport such as baseball than when they watched a less popular one, such as golf.

The social advantages of watching sport are therefore not necessarily limited to attending live events with family and friends.

Whether we watch in person or from the comfort of home, our favourite athletes can provide a sense of community and, in turn, psychological benefits.

So, whether you follow your team at home or in the stadium, you can embrace the ups and downs of sports fandom knowing it is good for you – provided you share the experience with other people.

Rachel K Ownsworth, PhD Candidate in Psychology, Anglia Ruskin University; Annelie Harvey, Associate Professor of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Engineering, School of Psychology and Sport Science, Anglia Ruskin University, and Helen Keyes, Head of the School of Psychology and Sport Science, Anglia Ruskin University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.