Competitive athletes exhibit lower off-field aggression and enhanced brain connectivity

A recent study published in Psychology of Sport & Exercise has found that long-term engagement in competitive athletics is linked to reduced aggression in daily life and specific patterns of brain organization. The findings challenge the common stereotype that contact sports foster violent behavior outside of the game. By combining behavioral assessments with advanced brain imaging, the researchers identified a biological basis for the observed differences in aggression between athletes and non-athletes.

Aggression is a complex trait influenced by both biological and environmental factors. A persistent debate in psychology concerns the impact of competitive sports on an individual’s tendency toward aggressive behavior. One perspective, known as social learning theory, suggests that the aggression often required and rewarded in sports like football or rugby can spill over into non-sport contexts. This theory posits that athletes learn to solve problems with physical dominance, which might make them more prone to aggression in social situations.

An opposing perspective argues that the structured environment of competitive sports promotes discipline and emotional regulation. This view suggests that the intense physical and mental demands of high-level competition require athletes to develop superior self-control to succeed.

According to this framework, the ability to inhibit impulsive reactions during a game translates into better behavioral regulation in everyday life. Previous research attempting to settle this debate has yielded mixed results, largely relying on self-reported questionnaires without examining the underlying biological mechanisms.

“This study was motivated by inconsistent findings in previous research regarding the relationship between long-term engagement in competitive sports and aggression,” explained study author Mengkai Luan, associate professor of psychology at the Shanghai University of Sport.

“While some studies suggest that competitive sports, particularly those involving intense physical and emotional demands, may increase off-field aggression through a ‘spillover’ effect, other research indicates that athletes, due to the emotional regulation and discipline developed through long-term training, often exhibit lower levels of aggression in everyday situations compared to non-athletes. This study aims to examine how long-term engagement in competitive athletics is associated with off-field aggression, while also exploring the neural mechanisms underlying these behavioral differences using resting-state functional connectivity analysis.”

The research team recruited a total of 190 participants from a university community in China. The sample consisted of 84 competitive athletes drawn from university football and rugby teams. These athletes had an average of nearly seven years of competitive experience and engaged in rigorous weekly training. The comparison group included 106 non-athlete controls who did not participate in regular organized sports.

All participants completed the Chinese version of the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire. This widely used psychological tool measures an individual’s general aggression levels as well as four specific subtypes. These subtypes include physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility. Participants also rated their tendency toward self-directed aggression. The researchers compared the scores of the athlete group against those of the non-athlete control group to identify behavioral differences.

Following the behavioral assessment, participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. The researchers utilized a resting-state fMRI protocol. This method involves scanning the brain while the participant is awake but not performing any specific cognitive task. It allows scientists to map the brain’s intrinsic functional architecture by observing spontaneous fluctuations in brain activity. This approach is particularly useful for identifying stable, trait-like characteristics of brain organization.

The behavioral data revealed clear differences between the two groups. Athletes reported significantly lower scores on total aggression than the non-athlete controls. When the researchers analyzed the specific subscales, they found that athletes scored lower on physical aggression, anger, hostility, and self-directed aggression.

The only dimension where no significant difference appeared was verbal aggression. These results provide behavioral evidence supporting the idea that competitive sport participation functions as a protective factor against maladaptive aggression.

The brain imaging analysis offered insights into the potential neural mechanisms behind these behavioral findings. The researchers used a method called Network-Based Statistics to compare the whole-brain connectivity matrices of athletes and non-athletes. They identified a large subnetwork where athletes exhibited significantly stronger connectivity than controls. This enhanced network comprised 105 connections linking 70 distinct brain regions.

The strengthened connections in athletes were not random but were concentrated within specific systems. The analysis showed increased integration between the salience network and sensorimotor networks. The salience network is responsible for detecting important stimuli and coordinating the brain’s response, while sensorimotor networks manage movement and sensory processing. This pattern suggests that the athletic brain is more efficiently wired to integrate sensory information with motor control and attentional resources.

To further understand the link between brain function and behavior, the authors employed a machine-learning technique called Connectome-Based Predictive Modeling. This analysis aimed to determine if patterns of brain connectivity could accurately predict an individual’s aggression scores, regardless of their group membership. The model successfully predicted levels of total aggression and physical aggression based on the fMRI data.

The predictive modeling revealed that lower levels of aggression were associated with specific connectivity patterns involving the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is the brain region primarily responsible for executive functions, such as decision-making, impulse control, and planning.

The analysis showed that stronger negative connections between the prefrontal cortex and subcortical regions were predictive of reduced aggression. This implies that a well-regulated brain utilizes top-down control mechanisms to inhibit impulsive drives originating in deeper brain structures.

The researchers also found a significant overlap between the group-level differences and the individual prediction models. Four specific neural connections were identified both as distinguishing features of the athlete group and as strong predictors of lower aggression. These connections involved the orbitofrontal cortex and the cerebellum. The orbitofrontal cortex is key for emotion regulation, while the cerebellum is traditionally associated with balance and motor coordination but is increasingly recognized for its role in emotional processing.

The convergence of these findings suggests that the demands of competitive sports may induce neuroplastic changes that support better behavioral regulation. The need to execute complex motor skills while managing high levels of physiological arousal and adhering to game rules likely strengthens the neural pathways that integrate motor and emotional control. This enhanced neural efficiency appears to extend beyond the field, helping athletes manage frustration and suppress aggressive impulses in their daily lives.

“The study challenges the common stereotype that individuals who participate in competitive, contact sports are more aggressive or dangerous in everyday life,” Luan told PsyPost. “In fact, the research suggests that long-term participation in these sports may help individuals manage aggression better. Through their training, they develop emotional regulation and self-discipline, which may be linked to brain changes that help them control aggression and behavior off the field.”

There are some limitations. The research utilized a cross-sectional design, which captures data at a single point in time. This means the study cannot definitively prove that sports training caused the brain changes or the reduced aggression. It is possible that individuals with better emotional regulation and specific brain connectivity patterns are naturally drawn to and successful in competitive sports.

The sample was also limited to university-level athletes in team-based contact sports within a specific cultural setting. Cultural values regarding emotion and social harmony may influence how aggression is expressed and regulated.

“One of our long-term goals is to expand the sample to include athletes from a wider range of sports, including individual and non-contact sports, as well as participants from different cultural backgrounds,” Luan said. “This would help increase the generalizability of our findings.”

“Additionally, since our current study is cross-sectional, it cannot establish causal relationships. In future research, we plan to adopt longitudinal and intervention-based designs to better understand the causal mechanisms behind the observed effects, and to separate pre-existing individual traits from the neural adaptations resulting from sustained athletic training.”

The study, “Competitive sport experience is associated with reduced off-field aggression and distinct functional brain connectivity,” was authored by Yujing Huang, Zhuofei Lin, Chenglin Zhou, Yingying Wang, and Mengkai Luan.