Study shows increased aggression between evenly matched teams
Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 09:03
in Psychology & Sociology
(Phys.org) -- Over the years, research has shown that when two people, or animals, are evenly matched opponents, both tend to resort to more savagery to win than if one is clearly superior to the other. Now new research by a team in the Netherlands has shown that the same appears to be true for groups, or teams of people engaged in sports. In a study, the researchers found, as they describe in their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, when two teams are evenly matched, they tend to resort to more illegal tactics resulting in more penalties, than do players on teams that are not so evenly matched.