Abstract
Emotion display serves as incentives or deterrents for others’ in many social interactions. We study the portrayal of anger and happiness, two emotions associated with dominance, and its relationship to team performance in a high stake environment. We analyze 4,318 pictures of players from 304 participating teams in twelve editions (1970-2014) of the FIFA Soccer World Cup, and use automated face-reading (FaceReader 6) to evaluate the display of anger and happiness. We observe that the display of both anger and happiness is positively correlated with team performance in the World Cup. Teams whose players display more anger, an emotion associated with competitiveness, concede fewer goals. Teams whose players display more happiness, an emotion associated with confidence, score more goals. We show that this result is driven by less than half the players in a team.
Keywords
emotions; facial expressions; anger; happiness; contests;
JEL codes
- D91: Intertemporal Household Choice • Life Cycle Models and Saving
- L83: Sports • Gambling • Restaurants • Recreation • Tourism
Replaces
Astrid Hopfensitz, and Cesar Mantilla, “Emotional expressions by sports teams: an analysis of world cup soccer player portraits”, TSE Working Paper, n. 18-917, April 2018.
Reference
Astrid Hopfensitz, and Cesar Mantilla, “Emotional expressions by sports teams: an analysis of world cup soccer player portraits”, Journal of Economic Psychology, vol. 75, n. B, December 2019.
See also
Published in
Journal of Economic Psychology, vol. 75, n. B, December 2019