Theoretical analyses and empirical studies have revealed that conflict escalation is more likely when individuals are more similar in resource-holding potential (RHP). Conflicts can also occur between groups, but it is unknown whether conflicts also escalate more when groups are more similar in RHP. We tested this hypothesis in humans, using data from two professional sports competitions: footb...

The consistently better performance seen by teams in various sporting contexts when playing at home is referred to as the 'home advantage'. Various explanations have been put forward to account for this robust phenomenon, though none has yet focussed on possible hormonal factors. In an initial study, we showed that salivary testosterone levels in soccer players were significantly higher before ...

OBJECTIVE To compare the associations between weight status and different forms of physical activity among adolescents. METHODS We conducted telephone surveys with 1718 New Hampshire and Vermont high school students and their parents as part of a longitudinal study of adolescent health. We surveyed adolescents about their team sports participation, other extracurricular physical activity, act...

Interpersonal coordination is a key factor in team performance. In interactive team sports, the limited predictability of a constantly changing context makes coordination challenging. Approaches that highlight the support provided by environmental information and theories of shared mental models provide potential explanations of how interpersonal coordination can nonetheless be established. In ...

We analyze a sports league that wishes to augment its traditional double round-robin tournament into a longer season. The method for doing so, chosen by the top Swedish handball league Elitserien, is to form two divisions that hold an additional single round-robin tournament to start the season. This format introduces new constraints since pairs of teams in the same division meet three times du...

Curling is a sport played on ice in which two teams each deliver 8 granite stones towards a target, or 'house'. It is the only sport in which the trajectory of the projectile can be influenced after it has been released by the athlete. This is achieved by sweeping the ice in front of the stone to change the stone-ice friction and thereby enable to stone to travel further, curl more or stay stra...

An overview of the Žnancial status of professional sports leagues in North America is provided. It reveals that they face similar challenges to those confronting professional soccer teams in England: most teams report annual operating losses; costs, primarily attributed to players’ salaries, are accelerating at a level which outstrips the large growth in revenues that is also occurring; and the...

Sports leagues constitute one of the few examples of legally operating cartels. In this paper I examine how gate revenue sharing may serve to coordinate talent investments within these cartels. I show that sharing revenues has the potential to raise cartel profits, because it decreases the incentive to invest in playing talent. Leagues consisting of teams with heterogeneous local markets should...