Do cheers really improve performance?

[dstebbins]

In many sports, especially those done in front of live audiences, said audience members are encouraged to cheer loudly for their favorite teams.

The idea here is that you're supposed to give the athletes a burst of adrenaline to help them land the big score to help them win the game.

But is there any real science behind this phenomenon? Is it scientifically confirmed if cheers actually have a direct, measurable impact on a person's performance, particularly his athletic performance?

There is certainly a different feeling when you're performing in front of a crowd rather than in practice. It might be more exciting to play in front of a crowd. But do the cheers themselves have a direct, measurable impact on your performance?

Are there any studies suggesting an actual causal link between the two?

Even if there is a correlation, is this increase in performance actually caused by the adrenaline that is caused by the cheers? Or could it just be the placebo effect?

[YaDinghus]

On 1/5/2018 at 11:05 AM, dstebbins said:

Or could it just be the placebo effect?

Afaik there is only a placebo effect in contrast to taking 'actual medicine'. That the psyche can have a significant effect on health and performance is pretty much accepted fact, so it stands to reason that being cheered by your fans in your home stadium will give your team a boost of confidence and an edge in winning. I suspect however that it's not near as influential as a good strategy and the players' athletic abilites, unless you're going from literally 0 morale (shouldn't happen to professional athletes) to through the roof

[DrP]

1 hour ago, YaDinghus said:

Afaik there is only a placebo effect in contrast to taking 'actual medicine'.

But the mechanism isn't known...  it could well be related to the 'positive vibes' people feel when cheered on, praised, are thinking positively, have been told they will perform better if they do some superstitious thing or get well from a disease. Something chemical must happen deep within us that is triggered by our psychological status... even if we have been tricked or tricked ourselves with positive thinking...    .....  maybe, I don't think anything conclusive has been confirmed scientifically either way.

 

On ‎05‎/‎01‎/‎2018 at 10:05 AM, dstebbins said:

 

Are there any studies suggesting an actual causal link between the two?

Even if there is a correlation, is this increase in performance actually caused by the adrenaline that is caused by the cheers? Or could it just be the placebo effect?

The adrenalin increase is real and scientific....  the opposite true for the player getting put down (increases on cortisone? Cortisol?).

Classic examples of a sports person's psychological state influencing their bodies can often be seen after boxing matches and running races. The losers, flooded with cortisol, can barely stand and often collapse in fatigue whilst the winners, who have been through the same exhausting procedure, suddenly get a new burst of strength from the adrenaline surge they receive. This adrenaline from winning can give the boxer strength to shrug off his tiredness and bruises enough to dance around the ring athletically and jump up on the ropes and carries a look of freshness and strength, an athlete runs a lap of honour.....  whilst the loosing boxer is carried off in a stretcher and the second place runner can barely stand and needs help walking off the track.

  

[Prometheus]

On 1/5/2018 at 10:05 AM, dstebbins said:

Are there any studies suggesting an actual causal link between the two?

Home vs away support has been thoroughly studied in football, and has been found to be one of the single biggest predictors of victory (the teams are of roughly equal physical ability). It is speculated this is due to performing in front of a supporting crowd.

But why 'just' placebo? Psychological condition has a profound impact on all our lives - how we think influences our bodies, not so surprising now we know that the mind is a manifestation of the physical, not something separate or imposed upon it.

 

Also found this website which seems thorough. Among other things it cites studies which suggest that the home crowd can effect refereeing decisions. Anecdotally, any fan of of English football knows it's virtually impossible to get a penalty at Old Trafford. 

Edited May 29, 2018 by Prometheus

[YaDinghus]

6 minutes ago, DrP said:

1 hour ago, YaDinghus said:

Afaik there is only a placebo effect in contrast to taking 'actual medicine'.

But the mechanism isn't known...  it could well be related to the 'positive vibes' people feel when cheered on, praised, are thinking positively, have been told they will perform better if they do some superstitious thing or get well from a disease. Something chemical must happen deep within us that is triggered by our psychological status... even if we have been tricked or tricked ourselves with positive thinking...    .....  maybe, I don't think anything conclusive has been confirmed scientifically either way.

I absolutely agree. I just took pointing out that placebo isn't the right term to describe the phenomenon to anchor my argument, on which you expanded so eloquently

 

9 minutes ago, DrP said:

This adrenaline from winning can give the boxer strength to shrug off his tiredness and bruises enough to dance around the ring athletically and jump up on the ropes and carries a look of freshness and strength, an athlete runs a lap of honour..... 

Not saying Adrenaline doesn't play a part in this, but to win a boxing match you have to score more hits than your opponent, so the winner is likely less fatigued after the match than the loser. Also many boxers win by conserving energy when the losers go on the offensive early on and waste their energy trying to penetrate their opponent's defense. I have some practical boxing experience, in case you were wondering

[DrP]

5 minutes ago, YaDinghus said:

Not saying Adrenaline doesn't play a part in this, but to win a boxing match you have to score more hits than your opponent, so the winner is likely less fatigued after the match than the loser. Also many boxers win by conserving energy when the losers go on the offensive early on and waste their energy trying to penetrate their opponent's defense. I have some practical boxing experience, in case you were wondering

I hear you here - but my point is that 2 IDENTICALLY classed boxers that fight a close match will 'feel' very different afterward...  not due to the number of punches thrown or energy conserved, but due to the real physical kick it gives you being a looser or a winner.... this physical kick comes from the adrenaline from winning or the cortisol from loosing. 

A classic example:   Look at Sally Gunnel winning the Olympic gold medal and breaking the world record for the 400M hurdles in 1992 vs Farmer-Patrick I think, the previous WR holder from the US. Falmer-Patrick was WR holder and current champ...  she was top of her game. The 2 finished with barely half a second between them...  they are both very capable athletes. For athletes such as these running this WR time (they both broke the former WR) would be exhausting....  but they have trained their lives for it. Both should be exhausted, but both should still be able to walk off the track.  Falmer-Patrick dropped like a sack, as though she'd been shot and had to be stretchered off the second she crossed the line....  Gunnell literally SPRINTS round the track, faster than most normal people could run it after training to do so, holding the British flag over her heard all the way. Not a sign of fatigue on her. The difference between our brain rewarding our win with adrenaline or a loss with cortisol.

 

[YaDinghus]

10 minutes ago, DrP said:

I hear you here - but my point is that 2 IDENTICALLY classed boxers that fight a close match will 'feel' very different afterward...  not due to the number of punches thrown or energy conserved, but due to the real physical kick it gives you being a looser or a winner.... this physical kick comes from the adrenaline from winning or the cortisol from loosing. 

A classic example:   Look at Sally Gunnel winning the Olympic gold medal and breaking the world record for the 400M hurdles in 1992 vs Farmer-Patrick I think, the previous WR holder from the US. Falmer-Patrick was WR holder and current champ...  she was top of her game. The 2 finished with barely half a second between them...  they are both very capable athletes. For athletes such as these running this WR time (they both broke the former WR) would be exhausting....  but they have trained their lives for it. Both should be exhausted, but both should still be able to walk off the track.  Falmer-Patrick dropped like a sack, as though she'd been shot and had to be stretchered off the second she crossed the line....  Gunnell literally SPRINTS round the track, faster than most normal people could run it after training to do so, holding the British flag over her heard all the way. Not a sign of fatigue on her. The difference between our brain rewarding our win with adrenaline or a loss with cortisol.

 

+1 for a good closer 

[iNow]

I find it fascinating that testosterone decreases in athletes after a loss, but even more fascinatingly it also decreases in their fans / increases when their team win: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9811365

[YaDinghus]

52 minutes ago, iNow said:

I find it fascinating that testosterone decreases in athletes after a loss, but even more fascinatingly it also decreases in their fans / increases when their team win: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9811365

Interesting. I wonder if that also applies when I watch Luke Cage beat the crap out of Gangsters in Harlem

[dimreepr]

5 minutes ago, YaDinghus said:

Interesting. I wonder if that also applies when I watch Luke Cage beat the crap out of Gangsters in Harlem

Probably, and why revenge is so seductive (when you're not doing the killing).

[Janus]

5 hours ago, Prometheus said:

Home vs away support has been thoroughly studied in football, and has been found to be one of the single biggest predictors of victory (the teams are of roughly equal physical ability). It is speculated this is due to performing in front of a supporting crowd.

But why 'just' placebo? Psychological condition has a profound impact on all our lives - how we think influences our bodies, not so surprising now we know that the mind is a manifestation of the physical, not something separate or imposed upon it.

 

Also found this website which seems thorough. Among other things it cites studies which suggest that the home crowd can effect refereeing decisions. Anecdotally, any fan of of English football knows it's virtually impossible to get a penalty at Old Trafford. 

Other factors go into home vs. away games other than crowd support.  

I can only speak from my own experience, but in the two sports I participated in High School where you had a cheering crowd (football and wrestling), I was never aware of the cheering.  With wrestling in particular,  The only thing I really heard or was aware of was my coach's voice giving instructions.   My daughter remarked on the same thing when I helped coach her in youth soccer.  While playing, she did not hear the all parent's yelling from the sidelines or even her Mom, only the other coach's and my voice.

[Prometheus]

10 minutes ago, Janus said:

Other factors go into home vs. away games other than crowd support.  

I'm sure there are great many factors that go into it - the link i provided goes into quite a lot of them and cites many supporting studies. 

[DrP]

Here is an evolutionary speculation as to why. Could it be about winning mates? (and social approval in general).  Modern day sports people that get cheered on by a team of cheerleaders might subconsciously perform better as they know that if they win or make a good play it will get them noticed and more likely to get a decent pick of a mate from those that are cheering them on. The encouragement they receive from their cheerleaders could be giving them excellent positive confirmation of the reward they will receive if they win/perform well. - so they try harder and get the adrenaline boost they need when presented with potential mates to impress. - this is a VERY basic premise and I am sure it is more complex, but this basic drive to impress and win could be maximised if there is a little promise of reward for winning...  so, in any event or sport, maybe our brains take the cheering on as positive encouragement to go for it a bit more to get your reward.   ?  -  maybe.   Maybe I do not think I explained my speculation very well  - I think I'd need to writer more to explain it and it is probably wrong anyway - although I would expect it might be a small component as to why peer encouragement and being cheered on could increase performance.   

Obviously this isn't just about sex and mates....  A tribal leader or hero might fight better against a sabre tooth tiger for the same kinds of rewards   -  social improvement and acceptance, confirmation of your prowess to be a leader or a fine mate.  Anyway - just speculation I was thinking about due to someone saying that they were 'cheering me on from the sidelines' at work yesterday. Maybe the desire to please others is innate in us for many evolutionary benefits and this cheering on that we receive really does give us the mental boost we need to 'get into the zone' as we know that others are watching so we boost our performance.  Any sporty types out there will know what I am talking about I am sure. 

I have another good example of adrenaline vs cortisol from my own personal experience of being in a running club a few years back and, in particularly, having a coach cherr you on during a race. This post is getting a little long though and I might share it later when I get the time.

 

[dstebbins]

On 5/29/2018 at 5:05 AM, DrP said:

Classic examples of a sports person's psychological state influencing their bodies can often be seen after boxing matches and running races. The losers, flooded with cortisol, can barely stand and often collapse in fatigue whilst the winners, who have been through the same exhausting procedure, suddenly get a new burst of strength from the adrenaline surge they receive. This adrenaline from winning can give the boxer strength to shrug off his tiredness and bruises enough to dance around the ring athletically and jump up on the ropes and carries a look of freshness and strength, an athlete runs a lap of honour.....  whilst the loosing boxer is carried off in a stretcher and the second place runner can barely stand and needs help walking off the track.

  

Couldn't that also be due to the fact that the loser in a boxing match necessarily took a much bigger pounding than the winner?

In a race, if the losers lose the race, isn't that also because they're less conditioned than the winner? So obviously running the same distance is going to take a much greater toll on the loser than the winner. If I were to run a 26-mile marathon, I'd probably drop dead before I even finished Mile 3 ... and that's because I'm not conditioned for running at all.

[DrP]

3 hours ago, dstebbins said:

Couldn't that also be due to the fact that the loser in a boxing match necessarily took a much bigger pounding than the winner?

In a race, if the losers lose the race, isn't that also because they're less conditioned than the winner? So obviously running the same distance is going to take a much greater toll on the loser than the winner. If I were to run a 26-mile marathon, I'd probably drop dead before I even finished Mile 3 ... and that's because I'm not conditioned for running at all.

I answered this same question above.  Read post number 6. It is known that adrenaline and cortisone play a part in this. Well, that's what I got from watching a documentary about it - I haven't read any published studies. Look at the Sally Gunnel example.

It is obvious if one boxer beats the crap out of the other...  I am talking about an even match between 2 very well matched people that are both exhausted during the long fight.   Both tired - the one declared winner will get as boost of power from the adrenaline and the looser will feel a massive downer.

[DrP]

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23931920-600-mind-over-matter-you-really-can-think-yourself-healthier-and-happier/?utm_medium=SOC&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1535455434

Placebo not just for drugs...  positive thinking improves performance and health. Being cheered on will make you more positive about your coming performance which could help enhance this self promoting placebo effect. (maybe).