&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Scientists want to know how FIFA games spike your stress, and you can take part")
Scientists are looking for World Cup enthusiasts to connect with their smartwatches in order to understand how the highs and lows experienced during a match manifest in physical changes in the body. Researchers at Bielefeld University want to collect data from football fans who go through a multitude of emotions, whether their team wins or loses. The aim is to understand the difference in the intensity of reactions from people of different countries. “We are interested in whether fans of different national teams react with differing intensity to the same match event, for example, whether a goal is measurably different for German fans than for Turkish or Brazilian supporters,” Dr Christian Deutscher, sports scientist and co-author, said in a statement.
He says the World Cup is "an ideal research setting" since it puts people from all over the world in "comparable emotional situations at the same time." The researchers are inviting people to register online if they are interested in participating in the study. The participants will be asked about their gender, nationality, the country they currently live in, preferred team, and how intensely they identify as a supporter. They would need to connect their smartwatches to allow researchers to gather data. Other information needed would be if they watched the match live, on TV, via a live ticker, or at a public viewing event. Smartwatches or fitness trackers work because of their long battery life, which will offer uninterrupted data.
How is watching a game in the stadium different from watching on TV?
A similar study by the same team gauged how watching a live match compared to catching it on TV. Researchers tracked 229 Arminia Bielefeld supporters via their smartwatches during the 2025 DFB Cup final against VfB Stuttgart. The data showed that the stadium atmosphere is physically more exhilarating as fans averaged 94 beats per minute, while home viewers sat at 79 bpm. When a goal was scored, stadium heart rates skyrocketed up to 36 per cent higher than others. Fans started getting jittery about the game several hours before it began, as stress levels were found to have spiked a staggering 14 hours before the opening whistle.
