Watching Sports Can Boost Mental Wellbeing – Here’s Why

It’s been a huge year for sport, with the Euros, Wimbledon and the Paris Olympics reeling in viewers from near and far this summer. Whether you’ve been watching in jam-packed pub gardens or curled up on the sofa, there’s nothing like the endorphin-boosting buzz of live sport. But it turns out the effects can last longer than the final goal, with a new study showing regularly tuning into your favourite sports can boost feelings of happiness.

Can Watching Sports Boost Happiness?

We all know exercise pumps up your endorphins, a chemical in the brain which helps improve mood and release stress. But new research, published in Sports Management Review, suggests you can reap some of the benefits without stepping foot on the pitch. 

Researchers at Waseda University’s Faculty of Human Sciences set out to explore how watching sport affects wellbeing, conducting three studies on over 20,200 Japanese participants, using a mixture of brain scans, self-reports and existing data. 

The first two studies confirmed a pattern between elevated happiness and regularly watching sport – with particularly beneficial effects from popular activities such as baseball, in comparison with less popular sports such as golf. 

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However, the most interesting study was the third, which looked into the brain activity of 14 participants while they watched sports, using MRI scanning. This found sports viewing triggered activation in the brain’s reward circuits, which release feelings of happiness and pleasure. 

Interestingly, those who watched sports more often displayed higher grey matter volume in areas associated with reward circuits, suggesting that regular sports viewing may gradually induce changes in brain structures – and, ultimately, long-term improvements in happiness levels. Plus, while previous research has primarily focused on sports fans, this research sampled a wider proportion of the population, irrespective of their relationship to sport.

‘Both subjective and objective measures of well-being were found to be positively influenced by engaging in sports viewing,’ said Professor Professor Shintaro Sato, who led the study. ‘By inducing structural changes in the brain’s reward system over time, it fosters long-term benefits for individuals. For those seeking to enhance their overall well-being, regularly watching sports, particularly popular ones such as baseball or soccer, can serve as an effective remedy.’ Time to get stuck into some more Olympics viewing then, we think?