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Here’s a reason to cheer up after dropping Game One: Fans get maximum enjoyment from winning a series if their team comes close to losing along the way.
The despair of nearly losing turns into a flood of relief if the team wins later, which is more fun than watching it dominate all the way, say a group of U.S. researchers.
“Obviously, winning helps people enjoy a game. But we’re finding that it doesn’t help to have a game where you have positive feelings the whole game. Negative feelings are an important part of enjoying a game,” wrote Prabu David of Washington State University in a summary of the study.
The study was done by studying fans from Michigan State and Ohio State Universities — old rivals in college football. Researchers followed the rise and fall of fans’ emotions when these two teams met in a game that looked like an Ohio State blowout in the first half until MSU roared back late.
In the end, Ohio State hung on to win by a field goal. But the team had a bad second-half scare first.
The Ohio State fans were ecstatic.
“You need the negative emotions of thinking your team might lose to get you in an excited, nervous state,” said Sylvia Knobloch-Westerwick, a co-author from Ohio State. “If your team wins, all that negative tension is suddenly converted to positive energy, which will put you in a euphoric state.”
The work was published five years ago in an academic journal called Journal of Communication, dressed up in some fancy language. (For instance, rooting for a team is called “affective disposition.”)
The point of doing the study was to examine strong emotions in a real-world setting, not the lab, David explained. “Sports creates emotions that are very powerful, and which matter to people.”
And if our Sens do lose the series? Oddly, Knobloch-Westerwick has a positive take on that too, based on a different study of people who watch tearjerker movies.
She writes that “tragedies actually make people happier in the short-term” because “watching a tragedy movie caused people to think about their own close relationships, which in turn boosted their life happiness.”
But that won’t happen, will it?
tspears@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/TomSpears1
查看原文...
The despair of nearly losing turns into a flood of relief if the team wins later, which is more fun than watching it dominate all the way, say a group of U.S. researchers.
“Obviously, winning helps people enjoy a game. But we’re finding that it doesn’t help to have a game where you have positive feelings the whole game. Negative feelings are an important part of enjoying a game,” wrote Prabu David of Washington State University in a summary of the study.
The study was done by studying fans from Michigan State and Ohio State Universities — old rivals in college football. Researchers followed the rise and fall of fans’ emotions when these two teams met in a game that looked like an Ohio State blowout in the first half until MSU roared back late.
In the end, Ohio State hung on to win by a field goal. But the team had a bad second-half scare first.
The Ohio State fans were ecstatic.
“You need the negative emotions of thinking your team might lose to get you in an excited, nervous state,” said Sylvia Knobloch-Westerwick, a co-author from Ohio State. “If your team wins, all that negative tension is suddenly converted to positive energy, which will put you in a euphoric state.”
The work was published five years ago in an academic journal called Journal of Communication, dressed up in some fancy language. (For instance, rooting for a team is called “affective disposition.”)
The point of doing the study was to examine strong emotions in a real-world setting, not the lab, David explained. “Sports creates emotions that are very powerful, and which matter to people.”
And if our Sens do lose the series? Oddly, Knobloch-Westerwick has a positive take on that too, based on a different study of people who watch tearjerker movies.
She writes that “tragedies actually make people happier in the short-term” because “watching a tragedy movie caused people to think about their own close relationships, which in turn boosted their life happiness.”
But that won’t happen, will it?
tspears@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/TomSpears1
查看原文...
