Using the situational characteristics of the DIAMONDS taxonomy to distinguish sports to more precisely investigate their relation with psychologically relevant variables

The continuous development and evolvement of sports provide a challenge for researchers who study psychological correlates and consequences of sports, as no single study can include all sports and results cannot easily be generalized across different sports. In this preregistered study, we present a new way of distinguishing sports based on the eight DIAMONDS situational characteristics: Duty, Intellect, Adversity, Mating, pOsitivity, Negativity, Deception, and Sociality. In a cross-sectional online survey, athletes were asked to judge the sport they perform on the eight DIAMONDS dimensions. 138 sports were rated by N = 7,835 athletes using the 24-item version of the S8*questionnaire measuring the DIAMONDS. Descriptive and cluster analyses were performed, and situational characteristics profiles were computed. The sport-specific profiles and identified clusters resemble existing sport categorizations but add relevant information based on the situational characteristics of sports, especially regarding their relation with psychologically relevant variables.