THE ESSENTIAL
- A team of Japanese researchers has discovered that watching sporting events is beneficial for well-being.
- This activates, among other things, the reward circuits of the brain.
- The most popular sports like football notably have a greater positive impact.
Do you like watching sports on TV? Well, you have no reason to feel guilty about being a couch potato. A study from Waseda University (Tokyo) reveals that watching sporting events improves well-being. Researchers have also shed light on the mechanisms behind these beneficial effects.
Their work was published in the journal Sport Management Review last March.
Watching sport boosts the reward circuit
To try to understand why so many people feel better after watching a sports competition, Japanese scientists conducted several studies. In the first, they analyzed public data regarding the influence of sport on 20,000 Japanese residents. The results confirmed an improvement in well-being after regular viewing of sporting events.
For the second part, the team carried out an online survey aimed at determining whether the level of well-being varied depending on the type of sport observed. Thus, 208 participants watched videos of different games. Their mental health was assessed before and after the viewings. The data collected showed that more popular sports, such as baseball, had a more significant impact on improving well-being than less popular ones, such as golf.
In a third experiment, the brain activity of 14 Japanese participants was analyzed while they watched sports clips. The results highlighted that watching sporting events triggers activation in the brain’s reward circuits, a phenomenon known to increase feelings of happiness or pleasure in people.
In addition, examination of the images obtained with MRI revealed that heavy consumers of sports on television had a greater volume of gray matter in the regions associated with reward circuits than others. Which suggests that watching sports regularly could gradually induce changes in brain structures.
Sporting events to improve the well-being of the population?
“Subjective and objective measures of well-being have been shown to be positively influenced by watching sports. By inducing structural changes in the brain’s reward system over time, this promotes long-term benefits for individuals For those looking to improve their overall well-being, watching sports regularly, especially popular sports like baseball or football, can be an effective remedy.recommends in a press release Professor Shintaro Sato who led the study.
For researchers, their work can “contribute significantly to the management of sports activities and to the development of public health policies”.
2024-04-16 14:35:50
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