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Watching This On TV May Actually Boost Your Well-Being, New Study Finds

Author:

Hannah Frye

April 25, 2024

Assistant Beauty & Health Editor

By Hannah Frye

Assistant Beauty & Health Editor

Hannah Frye is the Assistant Beauty Editor at mindbodygreen. She has a B.S. in journalism and a minor in women’s, gender, and queer studies from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Hannah has written across lifestyle sections including health, wellness, sustainability, personal development, and more.

Image by Studio Marmellata / Stocksy

April 25, 2024

Watching television has traditionally been considered an activity that undermines wellness.

Many people even associate it with laziness and view T.V. as a "guilty pleasure" that should be minimized for the sake of optimizing your health—but is that always the case?

Not necessarily. Recent research is challenging this perception by highlighting a specific type of television content that offers significant well-being benefits.

How watching sports can contribute to well-being

Turns out, watching sports just might be good for you (fans, it's time to celebrate). This finding was published in the journal Sport Management Review1 and included three different subset studies involving Japanese participants:

The first study examined the relationship between watching sports and subsequent well-being by analyzing publicly available data with a large sample size of 20,000 participants. They spotted an overall trend that regularly watching sports contributed to higher reported well-being from participants—a great start for the case of watching sports.
The next study dug deeper into the before-and-after impact of sports watching. This research team recruited over 200 Japanese residents who reported higher levels of well-being after watching sports videos, especially when it came to popular sports like baseball compared to less popular options like golf. Of course, there's some nuance here as some people naturally prefer some sports over others, but in general, the more popular sports showed a higher well-being response.
The third study put pen to paper to test the possibility of sports watching changing your brain—and with success, I might add. The research team conducted a neuroimaging experiment with 14 Japanese participants utilizing MRI scans to evaluate changes in brain function and structure.

What these studies found:

They found that watching sports triggered feel-good emotions like happiness and pleasure (which sports fans will probably know isn't entirely surprising).

What's more, those who regularly watched sports showed higher gray matter volume in those areas of the brain associated with reward and pleasure.

The message here?

Keeping up with sports can do more for your brain than just spike a happy mood at the moment but actually have positive long-term effects on your brain structure.

What this means for real life:

While it's intriguing to learn about the well-being benefits of watching sports, it's crucial not to use this research as a reason to be glued to screens 24/7 or neglect other important aspects of life, such as spending time outdoors and exercising.

Additionally, there's value in turning sports-watching into a communal activity.

We know that having a strong sense of community can support mental health and even extend your life 2—so whether you get that from watching sports, going on group walks, or scheduling regular hangouts with those you love, community-building is a worthwhile health endeavor.

If you want to make sports your point of focus, there's now some early science to back it—as if you needed a reason to do something you love.

RELATED READ: Check out mindbodygreen's new sports series, Game On.

Editor's note

If watching sports makes you feel overly anxious, angry, or puts you in a worse mood, it’s safe to say it's probably not the most health-supporting activity. This research is still in its early stages and might not apply to everyone. The key is to listen to your body and mind and figure out what works best for you.