Sports and aggression are often viewed as going hand-in-hand, but there are a variety of different reasons why aggression may or may not arise in a physically competitive situation.
I am absolutely not an aggressive person, and have very little in sports. However, I do play disc golf, and many times when I make a bad throw I have the urge to exert physical force on undeserving objects or other people. In this situation, making a bad throw creates a disjunction between how I would like to see myself (good at disc golf) and how I am in reality (not good at disc golf), which creates frustration, and in turn, aggression.
This type of aggression is similar to when players or fans become aggressive towards referees. When there is a dissonance between how one expects a game should go based on performance, and the decision that the referee makes, this creates frustrations, which can lead to aggression.
In another situation, I know three brothers who are very unpleasant to play sports and games with because they constantly show aggressive behavior towards each other, primarily in the form of name calling and trash-talk. Since the aggression happens whether or not they are winning, losing, on the same team, etc., it’s not a defense mechanism or display of frustration. Since they were young, their father has stimulated constant competition between the brothers, making this a learned behavior. In addition, since aggression between young males is very common, it is possible this is used as a practice for social dominance later in life.
A very common type of aggression in sports is aggression between fans. This can range from casual trash-talk to full out riots, which are a classic example of how a group of people with a shared commonality can sometimes fall victim of behavior that the majority of them would not normally engage in. Fan aggression is heavily biological, with more aggressive fans having lower basal cortisol levels (Van et. al., 2015).
No interesting game happens when two teams of very different skill levels play against each other. Competition and aggression are created more readily between “rival” teams, in college sports, often nearby schools of similar size, culture, and skill level. Both in sports and in primal animal behavior, if one entity is clearly dominant over the other, there is no need for fighting; the less dominance, the more conflict (Scott, 1948).
All in all, aggression in sports can come from frustration, genetics, environment, and desire for dominance. Whether or not aggression in sports is healthy or unhealthy is another debate, but there are many facets to competitive sports and why they tend to involve aggression.
References
Scott, J. P. (1948). Dominance and the frustration-aggression hypothesis.Physiological Zoölogy, 21, 31-39.
van, d. M., Klauke, F., Moore, H. L., Ludwig, Y. S., Almela, M., & van Lange, Paul A. M. (2015). Football fan aggression: The importance of low basal cortisol and a fair referee. PLoS ONE, 10(4), 14.
Great post idea! I think that sports aggression is a great thing to look at because sports are such a big part of american culture. I think that it is fair to say that a lot of the more popular sports in the states involve some kind of aggression. I think that as an athlete, to being the aggressor is almost always advantageous. This teaches people that aggression can be a positive attribute. For example, it is unlikely that you have ever witnessed a star football player who is timid on the field. Being aggressive is associated with dominance and strength in sport. I do think that there is a spectrum of necessary levels of aggression depending on the sport itself. For example, things like golf or bowling are probably very low on the scale while sports like hockey and football are much higher. One of the things I would be interested in is whether the level of aggression required for each sport correlates in any way with the aggression or personality of the players outside of sport. I think it would be interesting to debate whether sports can provide a healthy outlet for aggression or if they breed more aggression in individuals.
ReplyDeleteI think you make some interesting points about how sports aggression can be carried over to fans. I think that there are many psychological concepts, like groupthink and convergence, that are associated with fan actions. I think that fans easily become emotionally involved in the performance of their team and it causes intense reactions to outcomes of the competition. I am not sure that fans necessarily act aggressively because of their engagement in viewing sports. They may make verbal or physical displays of emotions while watching but like the debate about violent video games, just because someone enjoys watching something that is violent, it doesn’t make them a violent person.
To continue based on Elizabeth's comment. I agree with everything she said. Another thing she did not mention was how evolution plays a role in aggression in anything. Sports is high up on the list though as different sports have been played for thousands of years and most were initially violent in nature. Another thing that would be interesting is to see if the stronger the genetic link to those original sports stars, then the higher the aggression exerted while playing sports.
ReplyDeleteIn some ways, aggression is part of the entertainment of watching sports. In sports like hockey and lacrosse, aggression is very common and almost always encouraged. In sports such as disc golf or bowling (as Elizabeth mentions above) there is much less aggression. It would be interesting to see if the levels of aggression correlate with the levels of physical contact in a sport. Hockey and lacrosse are team sports that involve a lot of contact, while disc golf and bowling are more individual sports that do not require any contact whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to me that aggression is something that is praised in sports, while outside of an arena it's highly frowned upon and discouraged. It makes me wonder how fans let themselves get so invested into a game that they feel the need to be physically violent towards each other. Having played sports while growing up, I know the feeling of frustration when failure occurs in a sport. However, many athletes learn to cope with these feelings of rage and exert their energy on the game, not the other players. Of course, this varies athlete to athlete, but apparently it varies fan to fan as well.
Nice post. I think you hit on a few really accurate points, but there are a couple I do not entirely agree with. Foe example, when riots break out, how rare it is, it is either for a championship game like the Superbowl or between very tough rivals like the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox. Now, every fan wants to see their team do well, exceed and "crush the other guys" but there is a other factors that influence this rioting, which primarily stems from drunk fans being sensitive that their team lost or about a bad call with "the refs totally throwing the game". You mention the practice for social dominance later in life, I never really thought of it that way but that would seem to make sense. Whereas a young kid you would be aggressive or unreasonable, then you grow up and use that energy to be passionate about your career and thrive.
ReplyDeleteI love the topic you chose and that you were able to self-relate. I am an XC skier and we have a rival skiers in the region and nation, I understand that aspect well. Similar to your missed throw conditions in skiing can agitate people because the snow isn't how they like it, I do fall victim to this occasionally as a bigger skier. I like how you rolled in the frustration aggression hypothesis because I think largely it is true, even tho we discussed why it may not in class a little. Focusing on referees, how does a referee go about taking power back after a game is starting to get out of hand? The fans will most not likely help nor the players. What social psych ideas could we use? My strategy as a ref was never let it get that far.
ReplyDeleteAggression in sports is interesting, especially when it comes to fans, as you mentioned. I know full well how aggressive fans of other teams can be. I went down to Columbus, Ohio to watch the Michigan vs Ohio State football game. While there my father, his friend and I were all verbally abused by nearly every fan we saw. Not even two seconds away from parking our car, a man leaned out of his second story window and yelled at us, "You Michigan MF's get out of here." So I can easily see how, trash talking could potentially lead up to a full on confrontation.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post and a real life example of where aggression is super common. Your example of how when you play disc golf you can get frustrated when you don't perform as well is something I relate to. In my ceramics class I always get frustrated because I feel like I am struggling with something everyone else makes look so easy. You also mention how fans are often the cause of aggression in competitive sports. I saw a fight break out in high school one year because our football team was mocking their teams quarterback with a big sign. The cops ended up getting called and there were assault charges. Something that is supposed to be fun can often lead to disruptive behavior. Aggressive attitude in sports is why I stopped playing baseball in the first place.
ReplyDeleteYour post was very interesting and showed a lot of different sides of aggression! Since I have played sports my whole life I know for a fact that I become very competitive and aggressive, especially when it's a rival team. Overall, I have never really put much thought into where the aggression comes from, but have always just thought it was because the heat of the moment and that it is completely normal when playing a sport. Also, as a kid I was taught that you can't always be affective in a sport if your not willing to be aggressive in the game. To this day that is something I still believe in especially since I play rugby and in order to win you have to give and take hits. What I wonder is how aggression like this comes out in other competitive things like chess or other nonathletic things.
ReplyDeleteI found this post very interesting, as most of it definitely focuses on the frustration-aggression hypothesis in team sports among the athletes as well as the spectators, however, my personal experience is almost solely in individual sports performances, and it seems to hold even more true than in my experience with teams. When I'm on a team, I feel like I am actually more likely to forgive other's mistakes than when it is my own mistake or during an individual activity such as when I am rock climbing. I have actually gotten so frustrated at my own performance during a climb that I physically hit the wall, but I am typically a very relaxed person and would never get physically aggressive with another person. I wonder if you think the personality types such as high versus low self-monitoring can contribute to the frustration-aggression hypothesis, and if so, during what type of sports (team vs independent) would you hypothesize it becoming more of an issue?
ReplyDeleteIn the heat of the moment when tensions are high people are already worked up. All they need is someone to knock into them to get over the top.
ReplyDeleteI guess I never really thought of why people get upset at referees. The point you made is pretty good! We have a set mental picture of how the game is supposed to go, and when the referee goes against that, we get upset and aggressive. It's really crazy to think how such a little thing like that can set us off to be so aggressive.
ReplyDeleteI wonder where trash talking comes into too. Sometimes you do it because you're angry at the situation, like losing a video game, but sometimes you also do it just for the banter. This post really has made me think deep down, we still have a lot of primitive characteristics .
Sports is a fantastic area to study aggression and you covered a lot of great points. Just like you I am not a very aggressive person in my everyday life, but I will admit that when it comes to sports I get really aggressive, really easily. It definitely has something to do with the competition aspect. I want to beat the other person and prove that I’m better and to do this I have to get aggressive. I think a lot of aggression in sports has to do with coaching style too. I’ve had coaches who really encouraged us to be aggressive and other coaches who were much more relaxed. That makes me wonder about why certain coaches push aggression more than others. Maybe it has something to do with lower basal cortical levels like you mentioned with fan aggression.
ReplyDeleteI am a volleyball player and I can admit that I have become very frustrated during games and practices if they are not going the way I want them to. I have never acted aggressively, but I often think about telling off refs, the other team, etc. It definitely is more likely to occur if the game is close and if it is against a rival team or the stakes are high. I really wonder about the evolutionary explanation for aggression during competition. I'm sure it has to do with competing for power and resources. I wonder if there is a difference between men and women when it comes to aggression in sports?
ReplyDeleteI really think that aggressive behavior in sports is a learned thing. Sports competition in the US is such a strange thing. Kids learn from a very young age from family and friends which team is better and which ones “suck” and how they are supposed to dislike the people who support another team. I think it’s a little ridiculous. I grew up watching my parents scream at the tv during football games, and it’s common when meeting new people for them to ask what team you like and then joke how they can’t talk to you when it’s not their team. I think we bring this culture upon ourselves.
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