This article about our research into the biopsychology of team performance recently appeared in The Lancet (Diabetes and Endocrinology). Check it out! A review argues that the hormone oxytocin affects athletic performance, because of its role in modulation of emotional and social…
Is playing football like falling in love? That question, which would perhaps not occur to most of us watching hours of the bruising game this holiday season, is the focus of a provocative and growing body of new science examining…
When you need to perform, emotions either help you, or they throw a spanner in the works. Just ask Arjen Robben who missed a penalty in the final of the Champions League in May. Dr. Gert-Jan Pepping, a researcher at the…
Emotional contagion refers to the tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize expressions, vocalisations, postures and movements with those of another person’s and consequently to converge emotionally. Contagion of positive emotions is thought to play an important role in achieving successful…
[voor een Nederlandse vertaling van dit bericht klik hier] In sports, long the idea has prevailed that sexual abstinence, that is, no sex before competition, is good for sports performance. Recent research however shows that healthier people have more sex.…
Dr. Paul Zak explains how morality (read: important decisions when we work together with other people, such as in team sports), is linked to the neuro-peptide oxytocin. Taken from the BBC documentary Horizon: Are you Good or Evil.
A world without Love is a deadly place – Shakespeare. But what is Love? George Bernard Shaw ones said: Love consists of overestimating the differences between one woman and another. Helen Fisher is an anthropologist with Rutgers University, specializing in gender…
“I think soccer player contracts should have a clause going something like: the player has to have sex on the day before a game and, if possible, on the day of the game. When I do it before a game…
Perception, Action, and Emotions in Performance 