Support the Chinese team, keep supporting and feel happy! Sports psychology says this

The Chinese men's table tennis team won another gold medal. Congratulations to the Chinese team for achieving four consecutive championships in this event! Also in the evening, Liu Shiying won the women's javelin gold medal, creating a personal best and becoming the first Chinese Olympic champion in the history of this event!

The Chinese men's table tennis team took a group photo after winning | Migu

Liu Shiying in the game | Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ming

As the Olympic Games draw to a close, the Chinese athletes are unstoppable and full of stamina. Su Bingtian made it to the 100m final, 14-year-old Quan Hongchan became a legend in one battle, and the table tennis team won four golds and three silvers.

Looking at the gold medal list, China has been at the top for many days. Please shout with me - "Awesome, awesome!"

Medal table (August 7, 2021 8:30 am Beijing time) | olympics.com

Wait, don’t think that just saying “I feel great” is enough. Sports psychology will tell you: when our “super idol” Chinese team achieves good results, we “die-hard fans” will really feel “great”.

Next, let’s take a look at the mental state of the fans who support the Chinese team!

China's victory makes us "inflate" our self-esteem

When we support the Chinese team and watch the game, we will have a new evaluation of ourselves.

At the Rio Olympics, spectators cheered for their country | www.cctv.com

Self-esteem in psychology refers to one's own evaluation of one's own value. The higher the level of self-esteem, the higher our evaluation of our own self-value, and vice versa.

Many studies on sports psychology have shown that strongly supporting a sports team can improve self-worth.

An experiment conducted at Ohio State University in the United States in 2019 found that the winning or losing of the team you support has a direct relationship with changes in personal self-esteem [1].

Before an important American college football game between University O and University M, the experiment invited 174 students from the two universities to participate. The American college football game is a very popular and respected game in the local area. Students will cheer for their own university, just like we cheer for Chinese athletes in the Olympics.

A football match I attended in person that year, the seats were packed | Photo by the author

The participating students will test their self-esteem levels using a psychological scale before the competition, on the first day after the competition, and on the second day after the competition.

The final statistical results show that the self-esteem levels of the winning students have increased significantly and will continue to rise in the next two days.

I feel like a completely different person! | References [1]

What's more, at the Olympics, an athlete's victory symbolizes national honor, and we have a natural connection with this sentiment.

Take a look at the medal table, 36 gold medals! Our self-esteem is rising!

Hormones are also rising

When we watch a game, especially when we support a team, we experience a variety of emotions: excitement, excitement, tension, anxiety...

At the Rio Olympics, spectators cheered for the Chinese women's volleyball team | sport.gov.cn

The hormone levels (hormone levels) in our bodies are quietly changing.

The University of Utah and Georgia State University jointly studied the hormonal changes in sports fans during various events.

Psychologists selected two events: a school-level basketball game and a world-class soccer World Cup. The participants in the experiment were male fans of the teams in the game, aged between 20 and 42. The fans measured their hormone levels through saliva before and after the game.

The results confirmed that there had been dramatic changes in the hormone levels of these sports fans, with testosterone levels rising sharply in those fans whose teams won.

Figure | References [2]

To use scientists' rigorous description, this increase in testosterone levels is similar to the reaction of two male monkeys fighting and competing, and then one male monkey wins. Other related studies have shown that high testosterone levels are also related to expressing dominance and increasing the possibility of future success [2].

Then...you can imagine the excitement and excitement.

The psychological experiment mentioned above also proves that the happiness index of fans of the winning team will tend to rise.

Figure | References [1]

When I think about how the Chinese team has won so many times, it really makes me happy to keep supporting them.

Chinese women's table tennis team takes a group photo after winning | Migu

Support the Chinese team and gain a sense of belonging

Not only that, the grand Olympic Games and support for China can also help people gain a sense of inner belonging.

Professor Daniel Wine, who specializes in the psychology of sports fans, mentioned in his book Sports Fans: The Psychological and Social Influence of Spectators that supporting a sports team, becoming a fan, or watching a game can help people satisfy their need for social interaction by gaining a sense of belonging. The social connection generated by this sense of identification with a sports team can alleviate depression and loneliness [3].

In 2017, Professor Wine continued his research on the sense of belonging within sports fans and found that this sense of belonging can enable sports fans to establish a positive self-identity and meaning in life, and achieve a healthy and happy psychological state [4].

So, when we support the Chinese team, everyone feels a sense of belonging.

Moreover, this sense of belonging can even transcend victory.

Su Bingtian advances into the 100m final | People's Daily

The University of Southern California once sent a questionnaire about team loyalty to hockey fans, and received 105 questionnaires from winning teams and 145 from losing teams.

It was found that fans of winning and losing teams have different post-game focuses. For winning teams, fans tend to focus more on the team's outstanding performance; for losing teams, they pay more attention to the sport (such as professional hockey games) and also focus on their love for the team's athletes [5].

So, when we support a sports team from the bottom of our hearts, our love transcends success or failure. It is a love for this project and these people that comes from the bottom of our hearts.

Our support for the Chinese team is the same. When we see the Olympic athletes fighting hard in the international arena, we sincerely love and support them.

At the Tokyo Olympics, let us support the Chinese team and the Chinese athletes!

May you return home safely without any regrets.

Ma Long celebrates his win with a heart shape | People's Daily

References

[1]Knobloch-Westerwick, S., Abdallah, J., & Billings, AC (2019). The Football Boost? Testing Three Models on Impacts on Sports Spectators' Self-Esteem. Communication & Sport, 8(2), 236–261.

[2]Bernhardt, PC, Dabbs Jr, JM, Fielden, JA, & Lutter, CD (1998). Testosterone changes during vicarious experiences of winning and losing among fans at sporting events. Physiology & behavior, 65(1), 59-62.

[3]Wann, DL, Melnick, MJ, Russell, GW, & Pease, DG (2001). Sport fans: The psychology and social impact of spectators. Routledge.

[4]Wann, DL, Hackathorn, J., & Sherman, MR (2017). Testing the team identification–social psychological health model: Mediational relationships among team identification, sport fandom, sense of belonging, and meaning in life. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 21(2), 94.

[5]Fisher, RJ, & Wakefield, K. (1998). Factors leading to group identification: A field study of winners and losers. Psychology & Marketing, 15(1), 23-40.

Author: Wang Bingyu

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Typesetting: Washing dishes

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