Obesity and individual performance: the case of eSports

Area of Science:

• Sports Science
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Artificial Intelligence

Background:

• Negative stereotypes persist for individuals with obesity, even in computer-based work.
• The increasing prevalence of sedentary, computer-based roles necessitates understanding performance factors beyond physical activity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and individual performance in computer-based tasks.
• To challenge existing negative stereotypes by examining objective performance data.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from 821 competitive video gamers (eSports).
• Employed artificial intelligence (AI) and image recognition to derive body mass index (BMI) metrics.
• Analyzed 127,533 individual player performance observations.

Main Results:

• Individuals with normal weight performed better on shorter tasks.
• Individuals with Class III (severe) obesity demonstrated superior performance on longer tasks.
• The performance advantage for individuals with severe obesity increased with task duration.

Conclusions:

• Body features, specifically BMI, are objectively related to individual performance in competitive computer-based contexts.
• Findings suggest that performance in computer-based tasks may not be negatively impacted by obesity and can even be enhanced in specific scenarios.
• Challenges the generalization of negative stereotypes about individuals with obesity in non-physical work environments.