Shame in sport

ABSTRACT

To date, there has been little philosophical consideration of the concept of shame in sport, yet sport seems to be an environment conducive to the experience of shame due to its public and unequivocal nature demonstrating failure and success. Whilst much of the philosophical commentary of shame in sport suggests it acts as a quasi-virtue that holds the spirit of sport together and prevents cheating and other bad behaviour, I will argue that the real experience of shame (in contrast to embarrassment or guilt) is an adverse emotion, that undermines athlete well being and a good sports experience. This paper will provide an analysis of the concept of shame and its relation to other similar emotions, consider its ethical function, and evaluate its effect upon elite athletes in sport. I will conclude by arguing that those involved in sport need to recognise the destructive effect that shame can have upon individuals, how it can manifest itself in other negative emotions such as anger and depression and how sports authorities need to work harder to counter the pervasive and negative effects of shame in sport.

KEYWORDS:

• Shame
• emotions
• failure
• wellbeing
• humiliation

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Jake Wojtowicz, Alfred Archer, Andy Borrie, Cas Soper and Paul Gaffney for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper, as well as those who provided useful feedback and questions when I presented a version of this paper at the BPSA conference in Oxford, 2019.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. I thank Alfred Archer for suggesting this conceptualisation.

2. This is not to say that the participants actually felt shame; rather the incident was judged by the researchers to be shame inducing.