Mapping handball players’ reactions to aggression during a sporting event

International audienceDuring sporting events, players’ reactions to opponents’ aggression vary in widely differentways. Some players are able to exert strong self-control. Other players immediately react tothe first aggressive act. Still other players adopt middle-ground behaviors. We examinedwhether it was possible to find empirical support for these qualitatively different ways to reactto aggression. Handball playing was chosen because it involves a lot of physical/socialinteractions. Fifty amateur players were presented with a set of scenarios containinginformation about: the number and kind of previous aggressive acts that have affected theplayer, the current team’s score, the coach’s attitude to aggressive behavior among players,and the risk of being sanctioned in case of retaliation. They were asked to rate, separately, thelevel of anger they would experience in each case and the probability that they retaliate.Through cluster analysis, three qualitatively different ways to react to aggressive behaviorduring sport events were found; they were called Self-Control (44%), Depending onCircumstances (30%) and High Reactivity (14%). Implications for coaches and referees arediscussed.Mapeando las reacciones de agresión de los jugadores de balonmano durante un evento deportiv