This Is Your Brain on Sports: The Science of Underdogs, the Value of Rivalry, and What We Can Learn from the T-Shirt Cannon

by L. Jon Wertheim, Sam Sommers

Overview

This is Your Brain on Sports is the book for sports fans searching for a deeper understanding of the games they watch and the people who play them.  Sports Illustrated executive editor and bestselling author L. Jon Wertheim teams up with Tufts psychologist Sam Sommers to take readers on a wild ride into the inner world of sports.  Through the prism of behavioral economics, neuroscience, and psychology, they reveal the hidden influences and surprising cues that inspire and derail us—on the field and in the stands—and by extension, in corporate board rooms, office settings, and our daily lives. 

In this irresistible narrative romp, Wertheim and Sommers usher us from professional football to the NBA to Grand Slam tennis, from the psychology of athletes self-handicapping their performance in the boxing ring or the World Series, to an explanation of why even the glimpse of a finish line can lift us beyond ordinary physical limits.  They explore why Tom Brady and other starting NFL quarterbacks all seem to look like fashion models; why fans of teams like the Cubs, Mets, and any franchise from Cleveland love rooting for a loser; why the best players make the worst coaches; why hockey goons (and fans) would rather fight at home than on the road; and why the arena t-shirt cannon has something to teach us about human nature. 

In short, this book is an entertaining and thought-provoking journey into how psychology and behavioral science collide with the universe of wins-and-losses, coaching changes, underdogs, and rivalry games.

— Boston Globe, Best Books of 2016, Sports

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780553447415
Publisher:	Crown Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/02/2016
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	544,616
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

L. Jon Wertheim is the executive editor of Sports Illustrated.  A sports journalist with a passion for psychology and economics, he is the author of such New York Times bestsellers as Scorecasting (written with Toby Moskowitz) and You Can’t Make This Up (written with Al Michaels).  A huge sports fan, Sam Sommers is an experimental psychologist at Tufts University who studies the psychology of everyday life. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book Situations Matter.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Your Brain on Sports 1

Why the T-Shirt Cannon Has Something to Teach Us About Human Nature 4

Why Tom Brady and Al1 Those Other Quarterbacks Are So Damned Good-Looking (or Are They?) 10

Why We Channel Our Inner May weather and Secretly Crave Disrespect 30

Why We Are All Dog Lovers at Heart (but Not Deep in Our Hearts) 43

Why Hockey Goons Would Rather Fight at Home 59

The Curse of the Expert: Why the Best Players Make the Worst Coaches 68

Acting on Impulse: Why We Aren't So Different from the Sports Hothead (L-O-B, Crabtree!) 90

Why Athletes Don't Need an Empty Bed Before Competition 105

Why the Coach's Seat Is Always Hot 111

Why So Many Successful Ultra-Endurance Athletes Are Also Successful Recovering Addicts 127

Why Giving Every Little League Kid a Trophy Is Such a Lousy Idea 137

Why Rooting for the Mets Is Like Building That IKEA Desk 144

Why We Need Rivals 161

Why We Want Gronk at Our Backyard Barbecue-and Why He Wants to Be There 177

Tribal Warfare: Why the Agony of the Other Team's Defeat Feels Just as Good as the Thrill of Our Team's Victory 191

Why We Are All Comeback Kids 196

Why Running on a Treadmill Is Like Running a Business 209

Why the World Cup Doesn't Lead to World Peace (Even If J. Lo and Pitbull Claim Otherwise) 224

Why Our Moral Compass Is More Flexible Than an Olympic Gymnast 230

Why Unlocking the Mystery of Human Consciousness Is-Like So Much Else in Life-All About Sports 244

Acknowledgments 249

Reference Notes 252

Index 270

Editorial Reviews

12/14/2015
This collection of smart and witty essays by Sports Illustrated executive editor Wertheim (Scorecasting) and Tufts University experimental psychologist Sommers (Situations Matter) reveals the roles that human psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive tendencies play in sports—and in life. They ask several seemingly unrelated questions: Why do football players such as Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman spout nonsense in postgame interviews? How is running on a treadmill like running a business? And why do spectators fall over each other trying to grab a free T-shirt they probably will never wear? The authors, whose writing styles and backgrounds nicely complement each other, cite relevant research, specific studies and (absent available data) conduct their own experiments. The authors wonderfully weave in aspects of science, business (Ikea’s business model, expert Lego builders) and sports figures (Serena Williams, Brett Favre) to help readers better understand the games people play both on and off the court, the field, the ice, or—in the case of boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and his disrespect complex—the ring. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

 
“Wertheim and Sommers wield serious research to diagnose the myriad symptoms of the human brain on sports, and what they find is, by turns, hilarious, slightly frightening, and always illuminating.”
— David Epstein, author The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance
 
"Smart, funny, and brimming with insights."
— Daniel Gilbert, Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of Stumbling On Happiness
 
"It was only after delving into this unique tome that I learned that Mookie Wilson was available for bar mitzvah greetings via telephone, or that I can go elk hunting with Ryan Klesko for a mere nine grand. This information alone is worth many times the cost of this eye-opening and entertaining book."
— Bob Costas
 
"Eye-opening, captivating, and hilarious, This is Your Brain on Sports shines a fascinating and scientific spotlight on human nature. Wertheim and Sommers offer expert lessons for athletes and sports fans, sure, but also for business leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, parents, youth sports coaches, and more."
— Amy Cuddy, Harvard Business School professor and author of Presence
 
“A rollicking read that offers dozens of sparkling insights into social psychology, cognitive science, and behavioral economics. Wertheim and Sommers are the perfect writing duo — one part Watson and Crick, another part Brady and Gronkowski.”
— Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and To Sell Is Human
 
 “Wertheim and Sommers have achieved the Holy Grail: a book that’s as fun as it is informative.”
— Adam Alter, Associate Professor of Marketing and Psychology, Stern School of Business, and New York Times Bestselling author of Drunk Tank Pink
 
"Not just an entertaining read, but a book filled with wisdom that will help fans, athletes, coaches — and executives – understand sports a little differently and a little better"
— Ivan Gazidis, chief executive Arsenal Football Club

From the Publisher

01/01/2016
In this breezy volume, Sports Illustrated editor Wertheim and Tufts University psychology professor Sommers (Situations Matter) examine how sports reveal behavioral norms. The authors employ a wide variety of behavioral science studies to address sports-related questions that have an impact on everyday life and reflect human nature, psychological truths, and cognitive tendencies. The book's entertaining and somewhat flippant style belies its function as a literature review that introduces scores of cleverly constructed studies of how humans think and react through the lens of sports. The inquiries engage topics such as why rivalry is important to both performance and competition, how a mental finish line helps us pace our energy and effort, and how imagined and constructed disrespect spurs us, as well as the appeal of underdogs, the attraction of celebrities, the odiousness of participation trophies, the drive of home field advantage, the pride we take in achievement attained via struggle, and the disconnect between international sports competition and world peace. VERDICT A fun book that will appeal to sports fans and students of human behavior alike.—John Maxymuk, Rutgers Univ. Lib., Camden, NJ

Library Journal

2015-12-06
A strong case for the lunacy of sports as rooted in basic human neuroscience and cognitive tendency.With a light, anecdotal touch that belies its governance by hard science, Sports Illustrated executive editor Wertheim (Strokes of Genius: Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Match Ever Played, 2009, etc.) and Sommers (Psychology/Tufts Univ.; Situations Matter: Understanding How Context Transforms Your World, 2011) throw considerable light on "all the batshit craziness that courses through the sports ecosystem." Though the material they rely on comes from peer-reviewed journals and the results of scientific experiments, the application of their findings is very human: "we found the quirkiness of sports taught us something deeper about who we are, what we care about, and the forces that shape our behavior." Each chapter begins with specific fan or player behaviors, which run from the curious to the comical to the sketchy—e.g., why are so many quarterbacks good looking? Try the halo effect, in which the projection of a positive impression—warmth, humor, mastery—casts their other characteristics, including physical attractiveness, in a similarly positive light. Also important are survival instincts (those who exude dominance get to mate), the ability to read subtle facial and nonverbal cues, and the unconscious wisdom of first impressions. We are, in a word, groomed. So why don't great players necessarily become great coaches? It comes down to the difficulty of explaining what comes naturally. "Non-experts," write the authors, "have to work through a rote checklist of procedures in order to accomplish a goal; experts figure out shortcuts," often subconsciously. Because sports reflects the human condition, there are many downsides, from the two-edged sword of praise, rivalries that "open the door for rule-bending and outright deceit," and the sad tendency "to excuse moral failures so long as they belong to members of our team." If sports bring out the kooky, spooky, and creepy in us, Wertheim and Sommers give us a chance to understand ourselves and perhaps get a grip before we totally lose it.

Kirkus Reviews