CROWD SIZE AND DENSITY IN RELATION TO ATHLETIC AGGRESSION AND PERFORMANCE

The Effect of the Crowd on Home Bias: Evidence from NBA Games During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The present study examines a specific type of referee biases, home bias, and analyzes how the presence of fans affects home bias by using NBA games played in empty arenas during the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2020-2021 season and matches played before the pandemic from 2017 to 2020. This research also uses a unique data set from NBA Last Two Minute Reports to assess referees' performance at the play level. The findings show crowd support does not cause referees to treat home and away teams differently in crucial situations during the NBA regular season, contrary to the results in most prior studies.

Longer Disciplined Tapers Improve Marathon Performance for Recreational Runners

For marathoners the taper refers to a period of reduced training load in the weeks before race-day. It helps runners to recover from the stresses of weeks of high-volume, high-intensity training to enhance race-day performance. The aim of this study was to analyse the taper strategies of recreational runners to determine whether particular forms of taper were more or less favorable to race-day performance.

Methods: We analyzed the training activities of more than 158,000 recreational marathon runners to define tapers based on a decrease in training volume (weekly distance). We identified different types of taper based on a combination of duration (1–4 weeks of decreasing training) and discipline (strict tapers progressively decrease training in the weeks before the marathon, relaxed tapers do not) and we grouped runners based on their taper type to determine the popularity of different types of taper and their associated performance characteristics.

Results: Kruskal-Wallis tests (H(7)≥ 521.11, p < 0.001), followed by posthoc Dunns tests with a Bonferroni correction, confirmed that strict tapers were associated with better marathon performance than relaxed tapers (p < 0.001) and that longer tapers of up to 3 weeks were associated with better performance than shorter tapers (p < 0.001). Results indicated that strict 3-week tapers were associated with superior marathon finish-time benefits (a median finish-time saving of 5 min 32.4 s or 2.6%) compared with a minimal taper (p < 0.001). We further found that female runners were associated with greater finish-time benefits than men, for a given taper type ( ≤ 3-weeks in duration), based on Mann Whitney U tests of significance with p < 0.001.

Conclusion: The findings of this study for recreational runners are consistent with related studies on highly-trained athletes, where disciplined tapers were associated with comparable performance benefits. The findings also highlight how most recreational runners (64%) adopt less disciplined (2-week and 3-week) tapers and suggest that shifting to a more disciplined taper strategy could improve performance relative to the benefits of a less disciplined taper.

How does spectator presence affect football? Home advantage remains in European top-class football matches played without spectators during the COVID-19 pandemic

The present paper investigates factors contributing to the home advantage, by using the exceptional opportunity to study professional football matches played in the absence of spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. More than 40,000 matches before and during the pandemic, including more than 1,000 professional matches without spectators across the main European football leagues, have been analyzed. Results support the notion of a crowd-induced referee bias as the increased sanctioning of away teams disappears in the absence of spectators with regard to fouls (p < .001), yellow cards (p < .001), and red cards (p < .05). Moreover, the match dominance of home teams decreases significantly as indicated by shots (p < .001) and shots on target (p < .01). In terms of the home advantage itself, surprisingly, only a non-significant decrease is found. While the present paper supports prior research with regard to a crowd-induced referee bias, spectators thus do not seem to be the main driving factor of the home advantage. Results from amateur football, being naturally played in absence of a crowd, provide further evidence that the home advantage is predominantly caused by factors not directly or indirectly attributable to a noteworthy number of spectators.

Atmosphere in an urban nightlife setting: A case study of the relationship between the socio-physical context and aggressive behavior

Aggression is strongly influenced by the surrounding socio-physical context, and the development of aggressive behavior is best understood through a continuous cycle of ongoing person-environment interactions. Empirical studies, nevertheless, have been predominantly conducted in the laboratory, studying aggression as a short-lived phenomenon, emerging from and within an individual, and - with situational factors studied in isolation - devoid of its context. The present field study, conducted in an urban nightlife area, complements this research. A qualitative, multi-method approach was followed by thematic analysis to investigate ongoing behavioral patterns of the crowd vis-à-vis the changes in the context that co-occurred with the development of unwanted behaviors, including aggression. In our study, we identified atmosphere as a dynamic and mood-like, but extra-individual state of the socio-physical setting related to the development of aggression. Our results suggest that atmosphere affects the behavior of groups and individuals by emerging from and feeding into ongoing interactions between people and the environment. At the individual level, it appears to play its part as proximate determinant of behavior; at the crowd level it reflects the synergetic product of all those persons' states, behaviors and interactions. Implications for aggression theory and for applications aimed at curbing aggression are discussed.

The Logic of Climate and Culture: Evolutionary and Psychological Aspects of CLASH

A total of 80 authors working in a variety of scientific disciplines commented on the theoretical model of CLimate, Aggression, and Self-control in Humans (CLASH). The commentaries cover a wide range of issues, including the logic and assumptions of CLASH, the evidence in support of CLASH, and other possible causes of aggression and violence (e.g., wealth, income inequality, political circumstances, historic circumstances, pathogen stress). Some commentaries also provide data relevant to CLASH. Here we clarify the logic and assumptions of CLASH and discusses its extensions and boundary conditions. We also offer suggestions for future research. Regardless of whether none, some, or all of CLASH is found to be true, we hope it will stimulate future research on the link between climate and human behavior. Climate is one of the most presing issues of our time.

Research Note

Zusammenfassung. Häufig wird angenommen, Zuschauer würden einen Beitrag zu einem Heimvorteil in den Mannschaftssportarten leisten. Die bisherigen Untersuchungen, insbesondere zum Fußball und den klassischen amerikanischen Mannschaftssportarten wie Eishockey und Basketball zeigen in der Regel allerdings nur kleine oder gar keine Zusammenhänge zwischen den Zuschauer- und Leistungsvariablen. Bislang gab es keine Untersuchung, die sich mit dem Heimvorteil im Hallenhandball beschäftigt hat. In dieser Studie wurden N = 5003 Spiele der 1. Handballbundesliga von 1977 bis 2000 hinsichtlich Ergebnissen und Zuschauerkennziffern analysiert. Es zeigte sich ein deutlicher Heimvorteil in der Handballbundesliga. Über den gesamten Zeitraum ergeben sich 66.26 % Heimsiege (bei 11.45 % Unentschieden und 22.29 % Auswärtserfolgen). Es existieren allenfalls nur sehr kleine Korrelationen oder Nullkorrelationen zwischen den Zuschauermaßen wie der Zuschaueranzahl und der Zuschauerdichte und den Leistungsmaßen (wie Punkte und Tordifferenz), die aber weniger als maximal 1 % der Varianz aufklären und damit überhaupt keine praktische Bedeutsamkeit besitzen (z. B. bei Kontrolle der Leistungsstärke der beiden Teams zwischen Heimpunkten und a) der Zuschaueranzahl rp = .05; p < .01; N = 4645), b) der Zuschauerdichte (rp = 0; N = 4645) und c) dem Zuschauerquotienten (rp = −.04, p < .01; N = 4645)). Die Ergebnisse dieser Studie bestätigen zahlreiche vorherige empirische Studien (vgl. Carron et al., 2005 ; Jones et al., 2007 ; Strauß, 1999 ; 2002a ), die einen substantiellen Zusammenhang von Zuschauern und dem Heimvorteil eher verneinen.

LUNAR CYCLES AND HUMAN AGGRESSION: A REPLICATION

The present investigation provided for tests of a lunar-aggression hypothesis using the aggressive penalties awarded in ice hockey over a season of competition. Interpersonal aggression was found to be unrelated to either the synodic or anomalistic cycles, a result consistent with recent reviews of lunar research. Discussion centered on the persistence of lunar beliefs and their links to the literature on selective exposure and interpersonal expectations.

SPORTS PENALTIES: AN ALTERNATIVE MEANS OF MEASURING AGGRESSION

The official records of all games played in the Western Hockey League (N = 432) during a season provided the data for a Principal Components analysis of 19 aggressive penalties. The solution suggested that inter-personal aggression in the sport is multiply determined and can arise from eight different sets of conditions or antecedents. The advantages to research designs of using penalty indices as measures of aggression were discussed within the exceptional circumstance of a subculture which is supportive of aggressive behaviors.