Injury contagion is the emotional impact that extends beyond the injured individual to affect teammates. Carl Bescoby emphasizes the importance of understanding injury contagion for clinicians to optimize team performance and reduce collective injuries.
Soccer Football - UEFA Women’s Nations League - Third Place - Netherlands v Germany - Netherlands’ Caitlin Dijkstra reacts after sustaining an injury REUTERS/Piroschka Van De Wouw
Injury contagion is the collective impact beyond those who sustain an injury. It is rooted in emotional contagion theory and highlights the psychosocial reactions within athletic teams when a member sustains an injury. As a phenomenon, it transcends mere empathetic responses, extending to a collective experience that permeates team dynamics. Witnessing a teammate’s injury triggers an emotional impact in athletes, influencing their susceptibility to experiencing negative emotions like fear and anxiety. The collective psychological burden impacts the well-being of athletes and challenges their performance and injury susceptibility. Although the psychological toll of injury is widely acknowledged individually, the collective impact requires more attention. To create targeted interventions to prevent the psychological impact, clinicians must understand the origins of injury contagion.
Injury contagion is a concept whereby an injury in a team member would cause an emotional response such as fear or anxiety in the other team members(1,2). Clinicians typically view it through the lens of the psychosocial transmission of negative reactions to sports-related injuries among athletes. Injury contagion is based on the emotional contagion theory, whereby individuals possess the ability, consciously or unconsciously, to influence the emotions of others through both verbal and nonverbal means(3). Nonverbal cues include touch, body language, facial expressions, speech patterns, and vocal tones. A key component of emotional contagion lies in the mechanism of imitation. Observing someone expressing an emotion triggers a tendency to mirror that expression, subsequently inducing a parallel emotional experience(4). This phenomenon is akin to a ripple effect in which one person’s emotions influence the emotional states of those around them(5,6). Therefore, injuries may affect individuals beyond those that get injured, where they produce negative emotions such as fear or anxiety. These emotional states can then transfer to other members within a team, increasing their susceptibility to injury while also impacting overall team performance.
The collective experience of injuries exerts a significant psychological toll on individuals and teams. A complex interplay of cognitive and emotional responses unfolds when athletes undergo injuries as a group. The shared adversity creates a heightened sense of vulnerability, triggering cognitive processes that magnify the perceived threat(6). This collective psychological distress can manifest in various ways, encompassing heightened anxiety, diminished mood, and alterations in team dynamics. The cognitive processes involved in injury contagion extend beyond mere empathy, involving intricate, imaginative mechanisms.
Athletes, witnessing the injuries of their peers, engage in mental simulations that intensify their injury and experience emotional connection. This heightened emotional resonance can contribute to a pervasive sense of distress within the team(6). Moreover, the collective psychological toll is intricately linked to the social fabric of the team. Athletes often engage in social comparison, evaluating their performance and worth against their injured teammates. This comparison intensifies when one of their peers is injured, as it potentially challenges their identity and influences the overall team dynamics.
The collective response underscores the necessity of targeted interventions to address an individual athlete’s psychological well-being and the cohesive mental health of the entire team in the aftermath of shared sporting adversities.
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