Can watching sport really improve your wellbeing? The science suggests it can
And still the feast goes on. Since Rory McIlroy won a Masters for the ages, fans with multiple satellite TV subscriptions – and irregular sleeping habits – have been able to gorge on an extraordinary amount of dramatic sport. Seesawing shifts in momentum? Late twists? Huge shocks? We've had them all.
It says something when Barcelona's epic 3-2 victory against Real Madrid in a Copa del Rey final was only their third-most exciting match in the past month; and when my sober-eyed colleague Robert Kitson describes Northampton's 37-34 Champions Cup win at Leinster as 'one of the all‑time great knockout heists'.
The insomniacs among us have also witnessed a staggering number of did-you-see-that comebacks in the NBA playoffs. The New York Knicks stunned the Boston Celtics twice as double-digit underdogs while the Denver Nuggets came back to defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder in their series opener when the odds, and basketball logic, suggested they were doomed.
The previous night in the NHL, the Winnipeg Jets won a double-overtime decider against the St Louis Blues after equalising with 2.2 seconds remaining – the latest goal to tie a series decider in the league's history.
Then, of course, there was the pièce de résistance in this sporting equivalent of a 27-course Tudor banquet: the second leg of Inter v Barcelona. The greatest Champions League semi-final since … well, the first leg?
But after watching McIlroy sink the winning putt just before 1am, and then failing to get to sleep for a couple of hours afterwards, a recurring thought swirled round my mind. Can we say that watching sport is actually good for us?
Of course we think it is, at least some of the time. There is nothing like seeing an absolute humdinger of a match, Lamine Yamal or Simone Biles in full flow, our team triumph, or a wager come in. But we also know that there is a flipside. The expense of going to games and TV subscriptions. The banality of so much sport. Those long trips home after watching our team lose.
So what does the science say? That is what a recent Japanese study tried to find out by putting 14 volunteers through an MRI scan while they watched sport. The hypothesis they wanted to test? 'Do people who watch sport frequently on a daily basis have plastic structural changes in the brain regions related to wellbeing?'
The study, published in the Sport Management Review last year, started by analysing public data on 20,000 Japanese residents. Researchers found that watching sport, including at a stadium, online or on TV, showed positive associations with life fulfilment, even when controlled for age, gender and income.
'Specifically, the results indicated that the residents' perception of life fulfilment was significantly explained by spectating sport at a stadium or arena and viewing sport online or on TV,' the researchers noted.
The academics then asked 208 participants – split evenly between men and women – to watch videos of multiple sports, and to assess their wellbeing before and after viewing. Here they found that popular sports in Japan, particularly baseball, had a more significant impact on enhancing wellbeing compared with less popular sports, such as golf.
Then came the final, and most interesting, piece of research involving those 14 volunteers in the MRI scanner watching 20-second clips of baseball and golf. When the results were analysed, it shows that sport really did trigger activation in the brain's reward circuits, indicative of feelings of happiness or pleasure – with the effect greater for baseball than golf.
'Specifically, daily sport-watching behaviour was positively associated with grey matter volume of reward circuits,' the researchers noted. 'It can imply that brain structures may gradually change by watching sport daily so that people can feel greater wellbeing more easily.'
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If that isn't an invitation to watch more sport, I don't know what is.
Prof Shintaro Sato, the study's lead author, puts it thus: 'Both subjective and objective measures of wellbeing were found to be positively influenced by engaging in sports viewing. By inducing structural changes in the brain's reward system over time, it fosters long-term benefits for individuals.'
Sato also pointed out there might be a sociological aspect at play here given that baseball, Japan's most popular sport, attracted the most positive feelings. His conclusion? 'For those seeking to enhance their overall wellbeing, regularly watching sports, particularly popular ones such as baseball or soccer, can serve as an effective remedy.'
Of course, this is only one study in a field where there is limited research. However, another recent paper found that watching baseball in stadiums boosted 'subjective vitality' in Japan, and more so than watching the same match on TV.
The academic Jason Doyle, one of the authors of that second study, told me: 'In short, I think the research establishes strong evidence that watching sport can enhance wellbeing. And more broadly there are numerous ways that sport can improve one's mental health and wellbeing.
'However, there is of course a dark side where watching sport can also lead to antisocial outcomes with negative health and wellbeing outcomes too, including hooliganism and bullying. So it is a complex and ongoing topic of interest.'
That is certainly true. And it may also be the case that attitudes in Japan are very different from those in Britain, Europe or the US. But for now, at least, the message is encouraging. Watching sport is probably good for you. Right, where did I put the remote control?
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