Emotions in Sport and Games

Emotions play an important role in both sport and games, from the pride and joy of victory, the misery and shame of defeat, and the anger and anxiety felt along the way. This volume brings together experts in the philosophy of sport and games and experts in the philosophy of emotion to investigate this important area of research. The book discusses the role of the emotions for both participants and spectators of sports and games, including detailed discussions of suffering, shame, anger, anxiety, misery and hatred. It also investigates the issues of collective emotions in relation to sport such as the shared joy of a football crowd when their team scores a goal. In addition, this volume examines the role of pretence and make believe in emotional reactions to sport. In so doing, it makes important contributions both to the philosophy of sport and to the philosophy of emotions, which will be of interest to researchers and students in both fields.

This book was first published as a special issue of the Journal of the Philosophy of Sport.

1. Suffering in sport: why people willingly embrace negative emotional experiences

Michael S. Brady

2. Shame in sport

Emily S T Ryall

3. The interplay between resentment, motivation and performance

Myisha Cherry

4. Agent-regret and sporting glory

Jake Wojtowicz

5. Sport and the Anxious Mind

Jeffrey Fry

6. Only a game? Player misery across game boundaries

Nele Van de Mosselaer

7. Shame and the sports fan

Alfred Archer and Benjamin Matheson

8. Emotional sharing in football audiences

Gerhard Thonhauser and Michael Wetzels

9. Do you really hate Tom Brady? Pretense and emotion in Sport

Joseph G. Moore

10. Don’t stop make-believing

Nathan Wildman

11. All Caught up in the kayfabe: understanding and appreciating pro-wrestling

Lisa Jones

Alfred Archer is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy and the Tilburg Center for Logic, Ethics, and Philosophy of Science at Tilburg University. His primary research is in moral philosophy, particularly supererogation and the nature and ethics of admiration. He also has research interests in the philosophy of sport, aesthetics, political philosophy, applied ethics and philosophy of emotion. He is on the executive board for both the British Philosophy of Sport Association and the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport.

Nathan Wildman is Assistant Professor at Tilburg University, and a member of the Tilburg Center for Logic, Ethics, and the Philosophy of Science. His research focuses on topics in metaphysics, philosophy of language, logic, and aesthetics. He is especially interested in the nature of fiction, the logic of fictional truth, and the aesthetics of interactive fictions.