Feature: Think twice before you boo your competitor

PhD student Irma'T. Kurniawan discusses the surprising motivations for sporting performance in the latest issue of Opticon1826 . Next time you watch a heavy weight lifting tournament, tell the person next to you not to boo the person that he doesn't want to win. A study recently published shows that modifying someone's arousal level can influence their force production. Arousal refers to a physiological or psychological - state of excitability, which in this study was enhanced by eliciting either negative or positive moods. The research was led by Liane Schmidt and Mathias Pessiglione and aimed to investigate if motivation to exert vigour can be changed by changing the person's mood. The study was inspired by major sporting events such as the Olympics, where cheering spectators and cameras follow the athlete's performance closely.