Aaron C.T. Smith

driven through our hormonal system to get a stronger impact out of sports sense of tribal belonging.

We know, for example, that many experience greater hormonal changes while watching intense matches.

Our stress hormones go through the roof when we watch intense matches by up to about 50%.

In fact, research shows that cardiac events, that is, you know, heart attacks, spike by about a quarter in home fans during defeats.

But that doesn't apply to women.

So it only applies to men.

So sport, in fact, can be dangerous for men in some situations.

In a strange way, we're addicted to sport and that crowd environment, because it gives us this incredible sense of belonging and connection to the people around us, we also get this outcome in terms of bonding and trust and affection through sport.

It connects us to the team in a way where we can no longer

differentiate in an unconscious sense.

Us and the team, we are part of this collective sense of identity.

And meanwhile, our brains are in on the action.

All of that euphoria, the neurochemicals, the dopamine creates this incredible concentration that's... Even in some of the research suggests that those crowd-like situations can create a kind of brainwave synchrony where our brainwaves come into...

a kind of flow state that leads to a greater memory imprinting.

Neuroscientists call this a hippocampal imprinting, which means that all those euphoric experiences get then linked to meaning over time.

And this, of course, is exactly the way we work.

We talk about those great sport experiences that we had.

No, your perception is exactly right.

That's borne out in research.

We tend to have one particular favourite club or team or association or sometimes athlete.