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Sport and Society
July 2006
Banner photo: Image Source/Getty Images
It Isn't Just a Game
It has long been assumed that sports fans derive excitement and a sense of community from rooting for a big-time team. But scientific evidence suggests that for some fans, the ties go much deeper.
Some researchers have found that fervent fans become so tied to their teams that they experience hormonal surges and other physiological changes while watching games, much as the athletes do.
The self-esteem of some male and female fans also rises and falls with a game's outcome, with losses affecting their optimism about everything from getting a date to winning at darts, one study showed.
Psychologists have long suspected that many die-hard fans are lonely, alienated people searching for self-esteem by identifying with a sports team. But a study at the University of Kansas suggests just the opposite--that sports fans suffer fewer bouts of depression and alienation than do people who are uninterested in sports.
One theory suggests that professional athletes may re-create the intense emotions in some fans that tribal warfare might have in their ancestors. It may also be these emotions that have fueled the explosion in the popularity of sports over the last two decades.
"Our sports heroes are our warriors," Robert Cialdini, professor of psychology at Arizona State University, said about sports fans. "This is not some light diversion to be enjoyed for its inherent grace and harmony. The self is centrally involved in the outcome of the event. Whoever you root for represents you."
Dr. Cialdini pioneered research on fans in the 1970s. He began by documenting that college sports fans were far more likely to wear clothing with their team's logo on the day after victories than after defeats, a phenomenon he called "basking in reflected glory."
"It becomes possible to attain some sort of respect and regard not by one's own achievements but by one's connection to individuals of attainment," he said.
His later research showed that sports fans tend to claim credit for a team's success, saying "we won" to describe a victory, but tend to distance themselves from a team's failure, saying "they lost" when describing a defeat.
Some fans, though, remain loyal and fiercely attached to their idols despite years of failure.
Highs and Lows of Rooting
In 1993, psychologists at the University of Kansas came up with a survey for measuring a fan's attachment to his team. The scale divides fans into high, low and moderate identification.
Studies have found that "highly identified" fans--both men and women--exhibit higher levels of physiological arousal at games, spend more money on tickets and merchandise and enjoy generally higher self-esteem than people uninterested in sports.
Gene Hamm, a 37-year-old elevator mechanic from Staten Island, says his passion for the New York Mets, ignited as a boy during the 1969 season, has never been extinguished. He watches every game he can on television, his emotions rising and falling with every pitch, every hit, every managerial decision.
"I actually feel myself sitting on the couch managing the team," he said.
Mr. Hamm once spent months at home recuperating from a job-related injury, and he said watching the Mets kept him from slipping into depression.
A study in Georgia has shown that testosterone levels in male fans rise markedly after a victory and drop just as sharply after a defeat.
In one test, Dr. James Dabbs, a psychologist at Georgia State University, took saliva samples from 21 Italian and Brazilian men in Atlanta before and after Brazil's victory over Italy in soccer's 1994 World Cup. The Brazilians' testosterone rose an average of 28 percent, while the Italians' levels dropped 27 percent.
Dr. Dabbs said in an interview that the results suggest fans empathize with the competitors to such a degree that they mentally project themselves into the game and experience the same hormonal surges athletes do. The contest, however, must be an important one, he said.
Physiological Arousal
Charles Hillman, a psychologist now at the University of Illinois, found that ardent football fans at the University of Florida experienced extreme physiological arousal when they viewed pictures of Gator football stars making game-winning plays, but responded indifferently to pictures of other athletes and teams.
"Individuals that are highly identified with the team show extreme arousal compared to the average fan," he said.
Among zealous male and female fans, Dr. Hillman's study found, the level of arousal--measured by heart rate, brain waves and perspiration--was comparable to what the fans registered when shown erotic photos or pictures of animal attacks, he said.
For some fans, the emotional roller coaster of watching a game can be addictive. John Herde, a 65-year-old accountant in Manhattan, has been attending Rangers games since he was a teenager.
What has brought him back to hockey games again and again, he says, is the catharsis he feels when he gives free rein to his anger or gloats openly in triumph.
"It's a release," he said. "You can yell and scream and do whatever. It's like therapy."
Edward Hirt of Indiana University has demonstrated that an ardent fan's self-esteem tends to track a team's performance.
Working with fans of Indiana University's basketball teams, Dr. Hirt showed zealous fans pictures of very attractive members of the opposite sex after a game and asked them to rate their ability to get a date with them.
The results demonstrated that men and women who were die-hard fans were much more optimistic about their sex appeal after a victory. They were also more sanguine about their ability to perform well at mental and physical tests, like darts and word games, Dr. Hirt found. When the team lost, that optimism evaporated.
Dr. Hirt said the desire to belong to a group or a society--a need once fulfilled mostly by religious and political organizations--may explain why some fans remain loyal despite the repeated failure of their teams.
Edward Anzalone, a New York City firefighter, said he became fascinated with the New York Jets when he was a boy in the 1960s, and despite 30 years without a championship, has never lost faith in the football team.
"It's an obsession," he says. Mr. Anzalone, who is 40, is better known as Fireman Eddie to Jets fans. Every game, he rides on his brother Frank's shoulders, wearing a green-and-white fire helmet and leading the fans in a J-E-T-S chant. His devotion to the team has gained him some notoriety.
Mr. Anzalone's house in College Point, Queens, is painted green, the Jets' color. He will drive only a green car. The room of his three-year-old son, Tyler, is a shrine to the team.
A Sense of Belonging
In most cases, this deep attachment to a team can be healthy, studies have found. Daniel Wann, a psychologist at Murray State University in Kentucky, has done several studies showing that an intense interest in a team can buffer people from depression and foster feelings of self-worth and belonging.
In 1991 Dr. Wann studied students at the University of Kansas, demonstrating that ardent fans of basketball and baseball teams had higher levels of self-esteem and suffered fewer bouts of depression than did people who were not followers of sports.
"So many of the traditional institutions are beginning to break down, religion and family," Dr. Wann said. "The human psyche is the same, and something has to take the place of that. Sports fills an important void."
Michelle Musler acknowledges that her 27-year love affair with the New York Knicks may have had its genesis in loneliness.
It began in the early 1970s. She was working, had been through a divorce, and had five children to raise. Once in a while, she said, she got tickets from her company to Knicks games.
"My ex-husband ran away with the lady next door, and I didn't seem to fit into suburbia anymore," she said. "The Knicks gave me a purpose, something to do, a place to go. As a fan, I guess, there is a sense of belonging. That you are a part of something."
Ms. Musler, 63, became a season ticket-holder in 1974 and has missed only a handful of games since. A business consultant, she plans her travel each year around the Knicks' schedule, tapes road games to watch later and hoards newspaper accounts of her team. She once flew through the night after an 18-hour day of work to make it back from Hong Kong in time for a game.
She has lost some friends over the Knicks, when she turned down invitations to weddings and graduations because they conflicted with the playoffs. These sacrifices, however, have repaid her, she says, with new friends who share her obsession.
"What has happened through the years is that the Knicks have become my social life," she said.
Republished from The New York Times with permission.
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