Editorial: Why do fans care so much?

Published: 02-09-2017 9:05 AM

If you’re a dedicated fan of a college or professional sports team, and somebody who is prone to self-examination, you’ve probably asked yourself this question: Why do I care so much?

You understand that it’s just a game. When your team wins, you don’t receive a boost in fame or salary. You don’t even get a little trophy with your name on it. Sure, maybe you’ll buy a shirt or a hat, but anybody with 20 bucks can do that. And when your team loses, deep down you know that it’s not because of something you did or failed to do, like forgetting to wear your lucky shirt or eating buffalo chicken dip out of the “cursed” bowl. The game would have ended as it did regardless of your actions. You also know that the players you are rooting for, the ones who represent your city, aren’t even from your city. Before they signed their big, fat contracts, they not only didn’t care about your beloved New England-based squad, they may have even despised it.

The rational you knows all of this, but the rational you is lame and isn’t invited to sporting events. So again, why do you care so much?

Believe it or not, there’s been a lot of scientific research into that very question – and the data should make the rational you a little more sympathetic to your emotional half who was “in a very dark place” for two months after the Patriots lost to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII.

First, to be a fan is to be part of something bigger than yourself. When you passionately root for a team, you belong to a community, and belonging to a community comes with strong emotional ties. For the most part, that’s a good thing. Studies show that ardent fans are happier, have higher self-esteem and are less likely to suffer from depression, loneliness or feelings of alienation.

Secondly, when a fan is heavily invested in a team, the team becomes an extension of the self – for better or worse. Eric Simons, the author of The Secret Lives of Sports Fans, wrote in the Washington Post that, “Neuroscientists
. . . say that the brain’s ‘mirror’ neurons underlie fandom by putting fans’ brains in sync with the brains of their teams’ players. Endocrinologists have shown repeatedly that fans’ hormonal responses (particularly in men) can mirror the responses of the players who are competing.”

There are two acronyms coined by researchers that serve to address fans’ emotional responses to their teams’ wins and losses: BIRG (Basking In Reflected Glory) and CORF (Cutting Off Reflected Failure).

For Patriots fans, there has been a whole lot of BIRGing going on since Sunday night’s epic Super Bowl comeback. It culminated during Tuesday’s victory parade in Boston, when fans were able to celebrate “their” victory with “their” team. Conversely, when the Patriots were down by 25 points and all felt hopeless, more than a couple of fans turned off the TV, left the room or headed up to bed early in an act of painful CORFing.

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Jerry Seinfeld, who excels at finding comedy where rationality is absent, once said of sports fans, “You’re rooting for clothes when you get right down to it.” On the surface that seems true enough. But it turns out that being a fan isn’t quite that simple.

A loss may not feel very good – in fact research shows that it can raise blood pressure and decrease testosterone levels in men – but the mental health benefits of being part of a community of fans more than outweighs the occasional devastation of defeat.

So to all of you dedicated Patriots fans who went from the lowest low to the highest high on Sunday night – you should know that you won in important ways before the game even began.

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