“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well,” said the founding father of the modern Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin.
Sporting fans in the 21st century might agree with only one part of that statement. Teams or players that fight until the last ounce of energy drops from them is one thing that supporters can fully get behind. However, winning feels so much better.
Let’s take a closer look at the psychology of sports fandom and the benefits of being attached to a team.
Benefits of Being Attached To A Team
Fans spend their waking moments feeling the anticipation of a ball game, getting nervous before the big match, and hoping that a defeat doesn’t spoil their weekend.
‘Real’ fans live and breathe every play as if they were kicking or throwing the ball themselves. Supporters don’t have to be in the stadium to feel connected to the players. Fandom is a passion that escapes life’s more considerable stresses.
When the stress levels of a win-or-bust scenario are almost too massive to contemplate, the connection with a shared community of like-minded people is essential. After all, supporting a team is a tribal event.
Local rivals have to be beaten to enjoy bragging rights. Silverware must be won under the most prominent lights to share the victory with loved ones and millions of fans socially. When your team wins, total strangers waving the same flag and singing the same tune can be friends.
The addiction to that epic high of watching a team be victorious in a high-profile match is like no other instant hit for the die-hard fan, especially if it is won in dramatic circumstances.
When Patrick Mahomes picked out a pass in overtime against the 49ers in Las Vegas, the thrill of taking the prize was elevated. The Super Bowl odds are hot on the Chiefs being in the mix again, although many Kansas supporters probably couldn’t bear such a tight game in their quest to set the record of three consecutive Vince Lombardi trophies.
It is a known scientific fact that being so heavily invested in a team raises blood pressure and adrenaline levels. Although the stress level increases, the more significant benefit of being part of something bigger is healthy.
The Psychology of Sports Fandom
When a person is a red or a white, a blue or a green, they are never alone. They are aligned with a whole fanbase who are willing that side to get over the line. Humans are social animals; celebrating or commiserating together is a functional necessity.
The best experience for a fan is to have the greatest possible emotional attachment to a team but perhaps the least expectation of success. That state is what controls the huge dopamine rush. As a rule, if people are anxious and nervous, then the crushing desperation of defeat can almost be too much to bear.
It’s good to feel the passion and inject the players with that sense that a team is behind the team. Fans have power and often make themselves heard when things are going well or when their side needs a lift. What is hard is that they have no control over the result.
Losing and Winning
A team losing can be the trigger for desperation and despair. Just as players will look shattered and forlorn after a last-minute defeat, this transfers to their followers. However, such a feeling will only last a few days; the more significant pick-me-up is that feeling of togetherness. Staying together, win or lose, is a powerful medicine.
Winning and losing is not the be-all and end-all. It is the shared experience of meeting up. Having a pint in the bar before or after matches is the social attachment wired around the main event.
Sport is an outlet where repressed feelings can be released into the open air. “it’s the hope that kills you,” so the saying goes. It’s also the thing that connects. A shared grief is better than isolated frustration at the final result.
When the Super Bowl plays out again in February in New Orleans, two tribes will war on the pitch. The winners will lap up the plaudits while the losers will quickly move out of the scene.
The Psychology of Sports Fandom – Final Words
The great thing about sports is that there’s always another season, another day, and another time for fate to give out that incredible elation of victory. When it comes, there’s nothing like it.
There’s a saying that it’s better not to get too high when things are going well or too low when the wheels come off. Try telling that to sports fans.