Heads up! Study looks at soccer and extroversion

Heading the ball is a staple move in soccer, but it comes with a price: possible concussions. As coaches, trainers and doctors debate how to deal with the risk, researchers are drawing closer to understanding who is more likely to stick their neck out.

Extroverts, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, are more willing to go head-first into the ball.

A research team administered two tests to 60 teenage and adult male soccer players: one measuring personality traits such as extroversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness; the other, sensation-seeking behavior. A group of 20 non-soccer-playing athletes with minimal experience in contact sports acted as a control.

Players more apt to head balls had higher levels of extroversion. Tall players also headed the ball more often, but there was no correlation between this group and extroversion. "If you have to counsel a player who heads the ball a lot because they're tall, that's easy to change," one researcher said. "But if this is part of their personality dynamics, that's harder."