[Psychological aspects of home advantage]

Abstract

It has been shown that home teams supported by their audience win over 50% of the games in sports competitions. Researchers have also been paying increased attention to this topic during the last 10-15 years. Their main goal, in addition to verifying the existence of this phenomenon, was to find explanatory factors which can be associated - at least partly - with the development of home advantage. Our study demonstrates the biological basis of this phenomenon through the connection between the hormone system and territoriality, moreover, it discusses in detail the four possible contributing factors: noise of the supporting audience; familiarity; travel and rules. Latest research has emphasized an evolutionary explanation of home advantage, which, beyond the context of sports competitions, tries to give an answer to the differences found between male and female coping strategies.