The Psychology of Fighting, Digested: 9 Fascinating Findings Involving Boxing and Other Combat Sports

This study showed that fighting in training does not adequately simulate the affective and cognitive demands of fighting in competition,” the researchers concluded. The psychology behind who you think is the greatest ever boxer Whatever the sport, if you play the game of “Who was the greatest?” your judgment will probably be swayed by the “availability heuristic” (we judge as more important those examples that we can bring more easily to mind) and the “reminiscence bump” (we find it easier to recall memories from our teens and early twenties). So if you are in your youth today, it is quite likely, in years to come, that you will tell your children that Anthony Joshua was the greatest ever boxer, though this may of course depend on the outcome of Saturday’s match, and whether he can also defeat Deontay Wilder, if that fight ever happens! Researchers showed the reminiscence bump effect in an online survey of people’s beliefs about the “greatest ever footballer” – participants overwhelming tended to name players whose career mid-point coincided with participants’ teens and early twenties (for instance, Johan Cruijff was most often selected by participants who were aged 9 to 18 when he was at his career midpoint; Pelé was most often selected by participants who were aged between 12 and 21 years when he was mid-career). A similar phenomenon was observed for judgments about the “greatest boxers of all tim...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Feature Sport Source Type: blogs