Displaying nonverbal pride after a boxing match leads to judgements of success. However, it is not clear the extent to which this effect generalises nor whether it can override competing information. An experimental design had 214 participants watch two boxing clips that were manipulated so that one was evenly matched and the other had a fighter with an advantage (i.e. demonstrating more skill). Nonverbal behaviour at the completion of the fight varied between fighters (pride versus neutral). When the fight was evenly matched, the fighters displaying nonverbal pride were judged as winning the fight, but the fighter did not garner increased social influence. In contrast, when fighters demonstrated superior skill, the more skilled fighters who displayed neutral postures rather than the less-skilled ones displaying pride were judged as winning the fight, and the skilled fighters garnered increased social influence. These results suggest that in a boxing context, a pride bias works in evenly matched scenarios, but when differences in skill are more clearly present, a skill bias is more pronounced and leads to more social influence. Furthermore, perceptions of skill were associated with judgments of victory across stimuli, suggesting the importance of skill perceptions in such judgments.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.987149.].

Competitive sports involve physiological, technical and psychological skills, which influence directly on individuals\' performance. This study aims to investigate the levels of perceived stress and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) before and after matches with victory and defeat in professional eSports athletes. Our hypothesis was that the winners would have better autonomic and stress responses after match, thus corroborating the literature on neurocardiac connections. Fifty male eSport players were selected players from 10 different Brazilian teams. The experiment was carried out in 2 sessions. Firstly, after signing the informed consent form, 24 h before the game, anthropometric, physical activity levels and time of expertise data were recorded only for sample characterization and the players were familiarized with the perceived stress scale-10 (PSS-10) and the HRV measurements. Secondly, players performed the PSS-10 and HRV recording at rest by 10 min 60 and 30 min before the game (i.e., baseline time) and 10 min after the end of the game. Overall, concerning PSS-10 our findings show that VG had significant reduced scores in post-game time compared to baseline (BL) and pre-game times, while DG had significant increased scores in post-game time compared to BL and pre-game times. Regarding HRV, our results demonstrate that VG had significant increase in RR, SDNN, rMSSD, pNN50 and HF, and significant decrease in LF and LF/HF, while DG had a significant decrease in RR, SDNN, rMSSD and HF, and significant increase in LF and LF/HF. It was observed that VG had better HRV responses (greater parasympathetic activation) as well as lower levels of perceived stress, while DG had worst HRV responses (greater sympathetic activation) and higher levels of perceived stress.

Prior work on the relationships between team identification and spectators\' reactions to one\'s team victory has largely neglected the potential effects of mediating variables. In this research, we proposed that the process of Basking in Reflected Glory [BIRGing - the tendency to reduce the distance between oneself and one\'s team; Cialdini, R. B., Bordon, R. J., Thorne, A., Walker, M. R., Freeman, S., & Sloan, L. R. (1976). Basking in reflected glory: Three (football) field studies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 366-375] would lead spectators to almost take ownership of victories and share its benefits, thereby impacting their sense of national belonging in a positive manner. To this end, participants (N = 73) were asked to watch an edited video clip showing a victory of the French national rugby team playing against South Africa. As expected, results revealed that BIRGing mediated the relationship between team identification and one\'s sense of national belonging. In closing, a number of implications are discussed along with future research avenues pertaining to the sport spectatorship literature.

The present experiment tested the causal impact of testosterone on human competitive decision-making. According to prevailing theories about testosterone\'s role in social behavior, testosterone should directly boost competitive decisions. But recent correlational evidence suggests that testosterone\'s behavioral effects may depend on specific aspects of the context and person relevant to social status (win-lose context and trait dominance). We tested the causal influence of testosterone on competitive decisions by combining hormone administration with measures of trait dominance and a newly developed social competition task in which the victory-defeat context was experimentally manipulated, in a sample of 54 female participants. Consistent with the hypothesis that testosterone has context- and person-dependent effects on competitive behavior, testosterone increased competitive decisions after victory only among high-dominant individuals but testosterone decreased competitive decisions after defeat across all participants. These results suggest that testosterone flexibly modulates competitive decision-making depending on prior social experience and dominance motivation in the service of enhancing social status.

The biosocial model of status predicts a competition effect (or winner-loser effect), whereby winning a competition should cause a rise in testosterone relative to losing. However, its applicability to women and the role of contextual factors, such as a decisive versus close match, have been overlooked. In two studies of female competition, we tested whether the winner-loser effect generalizes to dominance contests that model unstable social hierarchies, namely in close competitions wherein the winner-loser distinction is unsettled (Study 1) and in competitions in which the outcome is uncertain (Study 2). In both studies we found evidence for a reverse winner-loser effect whereby losers experienced a net increase in testosterone compared to winners. Moreover, the rise in testosterone was stronger in those competitors who reported being more surprised by the loss (Study 2). These results represent some of the first empirical evidence for the reverse effect of what is predicted by the biosocial model of status. We interpret these findings in terms of the dominance motivation that testosterone might subserve within unstable status hierarchies.