Scientific Fact: The Mere Sight of Wayne Rooney will make you Lose Control of your Feet

By: Bob | January 3rd, 2007

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney continues to be the darling of the scientific community. After the smart guys with all the letters after their names used Rooney as an example to show us how much energy a football player creates in a match, they have used the football world’s most famous guinea pig to the demonstrate the powers of the ‘Einstein Effect’ (the first and last time you’ll probably see Rooney and Einstein mentioned in the same sentence), a psychological reaction caused by intimidation.

Researchers published their findings in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (I subscribe, but only because they offered me a free tote bag). Here is what they found:

Forty people were shown photographs of sportsmen like tennis star Tim Henman. In some photographs the sportsmen were shown in a neutral context — perhaps licking an ice cream, or sunbathing. In others, the sportsmen were shown in sporting poses — returning a serve, or kicking a football. Volunteers were asked to name the sportsman in each case by pressing a footpad or key.

It was found that when the sportsman was in a sporting pose, the volunteer’s brains took significantly longer to react to the photograph and name the individual. Most intriguingly, when the volunteers were shown a photograph of England international footballer Wayne Rooney in action, their hand response was unaffected, but their foot response was slowed by 20 milliseconds.

It seems that the type of physical impairment suffered by the volunteers related directly to the assumed skills of the sportsmen they were observing. Just as a photograph of Einstein causes lapses in the mind, a photograph of an expert footballer causes lapses in the legs.

The researchers concluded that Rooney was intimidating rival players, just as Einstein’s photograph intimidates students. Researchers Patric Bach and Steven Tipper told one paper: “The mere sight of him inhibits the control you have over your feet.”

That sounds similar to the reaction I have when I see a close up of Oliver Kahn but in my case I usually lose control of my stomach rather than my feet. I also have to wonder about the science behind this study. If I saw Wayne Rooney coming at me with his fists up at a night club at 4 am I probably wouldn’t lose control of my feet but I probably would lose control of my bladder.