World Cup study shows group fervor stems from shared experiences

The 2014 World Cup has captured the attention of billions of viewers around the globe. New research from UT suggests that it is the shared attention that makes these games so emotionally compelling.

14 july 2014--Assistant Professor Garriy Shteynberg and Associate Professor Jeff Larsen from the Department of Psychology conducted the study, which showed that emotional events are more intense when viewed simultaneously with other group members.

"Watching an event together with a group has a powerful impact on the way we process information," said Shteynberg, the study's lead author. "We tend to pay more attention and feel the experience more deeply, leading it to have a more lasting impact on us."

Across five studies, published in the journal Emotion, the researchers found that watching an event simultaneously with a group produced stronger emotional reactions than watching the same event alone, or watching it even a minute apart. Regardless of whether the initial event was a positive or negative one, these feelings were more intense when there was joint attention to the event.

"Group attention effectively intensified the emotional experiences of the study participants," the researchers said. "It made people happier in response to positive information and sadder in response to negative information."

The research suggests that emotional experience will be heightened only when attending vents with others simultaneously.

"The effect of shared attention is only present when you are watching at the same time as others," Larsen said. "If you are watching after the fact, you don't get the same effects."

These shared emotional experiences also have effects on our behavior. For example, study participants were more likely to donate money to a charity after jointly viewing a video about homelessness compared to watching it alone.

"Shared attention helps drive the excitement of a massive event like the World Cup," the researchers said. "We feel the events more intensely because we know that we are watching it with our fellow fans, regardless of where they are around the globe."

Provided by University of Tennessee at Knoxville

Why reaching the top in football is all in the mind, not the feet

19 jun 2014—As a youthful England football team prepares to take on Uruguay in World Cup 2014, new research has uncovered the rare mental attributes needed for talented young players to rise to the top of the English Premier League pyramid.

Sports scientists from the University of Lincoln, UK, and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) interviewed academy coaches at an unnamed Premiership club to understand the psychological qualities which marked out talented individuals for greatness.

The researchers were interested in understanding how academy coaches identified and defined 'mental toughness' – a quality found in elite athletes across many sporting disciplines, including swimming and athletics.

Youth players at an English Premier League football academy who would eventually go onto success showed mental toughness from an early age. This enabled them to deal with criticism, confront challenges after repeated failures, and not be intimidated by others.

The study also revealed that discipline off the field, such as sacrificing normal teenage life to ensure the chance of success, also contributed to future triumphs.

The researchers found the mentally toughest players were more independent, taking greater personal responsibility for their development. Academy recruits are subject to tough physical training drills, high expectations and sometimes harsh criticism, coaches said.

In contrast, young players who were high maintenance, requiring a lot of supervision, support, or relying on others to solve their problems were less likely to make it to the top of their profession.

Dr Lee Crust, a sport psychologist in the School of Sport & Exercise Science at the University of Lincoln, collaborated with LJMU on the research.

He said: "The study asks the question 'what makes you mentally strong enough to take the knocks and keep going, to lead the group?' We wanted to look at what might separate a player in the Premier League from another in the lower levels, how they are able to kick things up to a level of competitiveness which drives them to succeed.

"The report found that mentally tough players demonstrated a commitment to learning, had a strong level of trust with their coach, were more compliant with instructions and were always seeking ways to improve.

"These players were not afraid to make mistakes, and actually relished challenging situations; they were committed to learning how to cope with their own limitations by working on weaknesses whilst also playing to strengths.

"We found that coaches sought to foster independence and resourcefulness in the young players to enhance mental toughness, but that attention to the psychological development of young players was reported to be inadequately addressed in comparison with other aspects of performance such as technical skill or physical conditioning."

The research saw eight coaches and a director from an unnamed Premier League football academy interviewed.

More information: "'What it takes': perceptions of mental toughness and its development in an English Premier League Soccer Academy," Clive Cook, et al. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health. 13 Jun 2013. DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2013.857708

Provided by University of Lincoln

New early warning system predicts dengue fever risk during the soccer World Cup in Brazil

For the first time, scientists have developed an early warning system to predict the risk of dengue infections for the 553 microregions of Brazil during the football World Cup. The estimates, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, show that the chance of a dengue outbreak is enough of a possibility to warrant a high-alert warning in the three northeastern venues (Natal, Fortaleza, and Recife) but is likely to be generally low in all 12 host cities.

17 may 2014--Dengue is a viral infection that is transmitted between humans by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. In some cases, it causes life-threatening illness. There are currently no licensed vaccines or treatments against dengue. So far this century, Brazil has recorded more cases of dengue fever than anywhere else in the world, with more than 7 million cases reported between 2000 and 2013.

"Recent concerns about dengue fever in Brazil during the World Cup have made dramatic headlines, but these estimates have been based solely on averages of past dengue cases. The possibility of a large dengue fever outbreak during the World Cup, capable of infecting visitors and spreading dengue back to their country of origin, depends on a combination of many factors, including large numbers of mosquitoes, a susceptible population, and a high rate of mosquito-human contact", explains lead author Dr Rachel Lowe from the Catalan Institute of Climate Sciences in Barcelona, Spain.

In particular, climate has an important effect on dengue transmission in epidemic-prone areas where temperature and rainfall drive both mosquito and virus transmission dynamics. The risk of an epidemic increases shortly after a season of heavy rainfall, as occurred in the Amazon during the summer in Brazil.

"Our aim was to take the available evidence on real-time seasonal rainfall and temperature forecasts, transmission dynamics, and social and environmental variables (e.g., urbanisation), and combine it with the latest in mapping and mathematical modelling to produce robust risk estimates for the 12 host cities where matches will be played", says Dr Lowe.

The researchers estimate little risk of dengue outbreaks during the forthcoming World Cup period in the southern and central capitals of Brasília, Cuiabá, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, and São Paulo. However, they predict that there is some chance of dengue risk exceeding medium levels in Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Salvador and Manaus. The three cities with the highest risk are Natal, Fortaleza, and Recife, although the risk still remains relatively low.

According to Dr Lowe, "The ability to provide early warnings of dengue epidemics at the microregion level, three months in advance, is invaluable for reducing or containing an epidemic and will give local authorities the time to combat mosquito populations in those cities with a greater chance of dengue outbreaks."

Writing in a linked Comment, David Harley and Elvina Viennet from the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia say, "Travellers, particularly those attending matches in high-risk cities, identified as Recife, Fortaleza, and Natal by Lowe and colleagues, might return home with dengue… Those who return home unwell will seek treatment. Doctors must be aware of causes for febrile illness in World Cup spectators… We expect that few spectators will originate from tropical low-income and middle-income countries, and those who do will probably be wealthy, able to access good medical care, and likely to protect themselves from mosquito bites. Even in those who infect mosquitoes on their return, most will live in dengue endemic countries where the introduction of Brazilian dengue virus will make little difference to local epidemiology. Perhaps a few will return to tropical centres in wealthy countries where A aegypti is present but where the incidence of dengue is low. One such example is Cairns in far north Queensland, Australia, where dengue epidemics causally linked to, but geographically distant from, the World Cup in Brazil are possible."

More information: www.thelancet.com/journals/lancetid/article/PIIS1473-3099(14)70781-9abstract

Provided by Lancet